(Feature Image: Yamuna river in flowless condition downstream Juddo dam (Vyasi HEP) in Dehradun in June 2023. Bhim Singh Rawat/ SANDRP)

The decision of Government of India, conveyed to the Supreme Court through a joint affidavit from Union Ministry of Jal Shakti and Ministry of Environment and Forests, with concurrence of also the Union Power Ministry that no more hydro projects will be taken up in Upper Ganga basin after three under construction projects are completed (four of the seven listed are already commissioned, so only three under construction projects remain) is welcome. It has taken decades of struggle by many campaigns and movements, including the massive June 2013 disaster and the Supreme Court order led by Justice Radha Krishnan then among others.

(Feature Image: AI generated image. Source: National Herald)

The proliferation of sugar mills and sugarcane cultivation in drought prone areas like Marathwada, North Karnataka, Cauvery basin areas in Tamil Nadu has always been a huge scandal, ongoing for decades. Now new dimensions are getting added to this, as the following article this week shows: Ethanol procurement for blending with petrol, now upto 20%, but there are moves afoot to increase it to upto 100%.

The Ethanol does not come just from molasses, a by-product of sugar manufacture, but now even from sugar. Yet another dimension that is getting added is the use of rice and maize also for manufacture of ethanol. Rice itself is hugely water intensive crop, its second stage high water consumption come from manufacture of ethanol from rice. This is being sold as a solution to high import bill in petroleum import, particularly in times of the ongoing Gulf War.

(Feature Image: Binnu river a tributary of Ramganga in Deghat, Almora. SANDRP)

Interestingly, there are a number of developments this week related to climate crisis from at least four states/ Union Territories of Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, even if we do not include in these other directly or indirectly related developments. These show how fast the impacts of climate crisis across the country are spreading and the number of different sectors are increasingly getting involved in the climate crisis. All these are related to water related issues.