Singrauli Fly Ash Dam Breach: Who regulates these dams in India?

April 12, 2020June 27, 2020 SANDRP1 Comment

A fly ash Dam of Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project of Reliance Company has breached [i] in the evening of April 10, 2020, near village Harrahva in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, killing six people and destroying downstream river and fields. Following the breach there was massive flash flood of coal ash mixed sludge reportedly affecting hundreds of villages and destroying crops on thousands of acres.

Of the six people feared to have been killed in the flash floods, dead bodies of two have been found in faraway areas, while four are still missing. Two women injured in the aftermath are reported to be in stable condition in local hospital. Reports also suggest that many people could be trapped in their homes because of the poisonous sludge.

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Cleaner rivers in lockdown: Lessons we can learn

April 11, 2020April 13, 2020 SANDRPLeave a comment

Within a week of 21-day long lockdown in India that started at midnight on March 24, 2020, several reports in print, electronic and social media have been doing rounds showing remarkable improvements in water quality in many rivers in the country. Most of these are on the basis of naked eye observations in the form of pictures and videos by people.

Some of the reports quote pollution control boards’ officials and experts with some analytical data. People generally believe that the shutting down of industrial units has led to reduction in discharge of industrial effluents in the rivers, breathing fresh life in pollution laden streams. It’s right that there is halt in industrial belts and there is less industrial pollution reaching the rivers. However there are other factors contributing to the change in the scenario.

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Dams · DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 30 March 2020: Chilika has fishing cat & otters, but why we know so little about aquatic biodiversity?

March 30, 2020September 22, 2020 SANDRP2 Comments

There is some good news this week. A survey has found existence of fishing cat and two otter species in Chilika lake – this was not known so far. However, this also underlines how little we know about India’s aquatic biodiversity in our rivers, lakes and deltas. Its high time we have authentic baseline survey across India, hopefully in participation with the local communities who would already know so much about this. And may be rather urgently, once we are through with the current Covid-19 Crisis.

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Dams · Rivers

International Day of Action for Rivers 2020: Positive River Stories from India

March 13, 2020March 22, 2020 SANDRPLeave a comment

On the occasion of International day of action for rivers which is annually celebrated on March 14, SANDRP put together some positive citizens and community led actions taken in last one year to protect and revive the rivers in different parts of India.

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Dams · Narmada

परिक्रमावासियों से नर्मदा मैया को प्लास्टिक कचरा मुक्त बनाने की अपील

March 13, 2020March 13, 2020 SANDRP10 Comments

Guest Blog by Jubin Mehta

मैंने और मेरे साथी ने 25 नवंबर 2019 से 25 फरवरी 2020 का समय नर्मदा परिक्रमा के दौरान नदी किनारे यात्रा करते हुए व्यतीत किया। करीब 90 दिनों तक चली इस परिक्रमा में हमने कुछ 2500 किमी की पदयात्रा और शेष लगभग 1000 किमी का सफर गाड़ी से किया। बड़ा ही सुन्दर अनुभव रहा- किनारे पर बसे हुए लोगों का भाव, मंदिर और आश्रमों की सेवा और नर्मदा मैया के चमत्कार ने ह्रदय को निर्मल कर दिया और मन को भी एक अद्भुत सी शान्ति से मिली।

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Dams · Wetlands

India Ramsar Wetlands in Crisis in 2020

March 7, 2020November 1, 2020 SANDRP5 Comments

Ramsar wetlands in India require urgent intervention for central, state governments and Ramsar Convention as this 2020 report shows. The five regional reports from India in 2020 show that despite Ramsar tag, the fate of these wetlands has seen no marked improvement. This raises the question as to how helpful for wetlands in India is the Ramsar tag.

In 2019, India has added 10 more wetlands selected under Ramsar Convention taking total number of Ramsar wetlands in the country to 37 covering about 10,679.39 sq km area across 15 different Indian States and two Union Territories (UTs). A description of each of India’s 37 Ramsar wetlands, as given on official Ramsar website is given in Annexure below. A decade after the first meeting at Ramsar in Iran for wetland protection in 1971, India got its first wetlands, Chilika lake (Odisha) and Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan) registered as Ramsar wetland of global significance in Oct 1981.

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Dams · Wetlands

Ramsar Wetlands in Crisis 2020: South India

March 3, 2020January 27, 2022 SANDRPLeave a comment

Out of six states/ Union Territory in South India, three stares have five Ramsar wetlands sites which include one each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and three in Kerala. There are no Ramsar wetlands in Telangana, Karnataka and Puducherry. In order to understand and highlight the present day situation of Ramsar sites in India, SANDRP has compiled information on all 37 wetlands under North, West, North East and East zone. This account in the series describes the threats affecting the Ramsar sites in South Indian States.

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Dams · Wetlands

Ramsar Wetlands in Crisis 2020: East India

March 2, 2020January 27, 2022 SANDRPLeave a comment

In East India there are four Ramsar wetlands: two each in W Bengal and Odisha states. There are no Ramsar wetland sites in Bihar, Jharkhand or Sikkim, the other East India states. Here we provide a status of these Ramsar sites of East India, along with the kind of risks and threats these Ramsar sites face. The objective is to ensure greater awareness about these issues and hope that this will help achieve better responses from Ramsar convention as also the governments at various levels.

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Dams · Wetlands

Ramsar Wetlands in Crisis 2020: North India

February 29, 2020January 27, 2022 SANDRPLeave a comment

In the second half of 2019, ten additional wetlands of India have been recognized as Ramsar sites taking the total tally of such wetlands from 27 to 37. Does getting Ramsar tags really help the cause of wetlands protection? Here we try to show the present conditions and threats the Ramsar wetlands sites have been facing in North India. The subsequent compilation would share details of Ramsar sites in other zones of India.

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Dams · Yamuna River

Despite NGT order and Yamuna Monitoring Committee-CPCB-DDA responses, action awaited about dumping on Yamuna floodplain

February 24, 2020July 28, 2020 SANDRP2 Comments

The floodplains of Yamuna in Delhi have been facing encroachment threats for long. In the latest incident a huge portion of riverbed underneath Nizammudin bridge towards Games village was found turned into a dumping ground on February 16, 2020. This was happening despite the protection of floodplains from encroachment and waste dumping were among key concerns of remarkable National Green Tribunal (NGT) judgement “Maili Se Nirmal Yamuna” of January 13, 2015. Continue reading “Despite NGT order and Yamuna Monitoring Committee-CPCB-DDA responses, action awaited about dumping on Yamuna floodplain” →