On the Occasion of World Fisheries Day (WFD) 2025, SANDRP shares the top ten reports underlining the growing impacts of river obstruction projects on freshwater fish species and dependent fisherfolks in India. Indeed, damming free flowing rivers has become the single biggest reason behind growing extinction rate of aquatic life by severely disrupting their migration routes. The iconic hilsa and mahaseer fish in Ganga and Narmada have declined sharply due to construction of Farakka and Sardar Sarovar dams respectively, among others.
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2025 South West Monsoon in Upper Yamuna Basin
(Feature Image: Screenshot of IMD River basin wise cumulative rainfall map dated 30.09.2025 showing the Yamuna basin)
This report presents monthly rainfall figures during South West (SW) monsoon season 2025 for 16 districts located in 4 states of Himachal Pradesh (3 districts), Uttarakhand (3 districts), Haryana (5 districts), Uttar Pradesh (5 districts) which forms parts of the upper Yamuna basin. The India Meteorological Département (IMD) has divided Delhi in 10 divisions which entirely comes in upper Yamuna basin and the report has rainfall figures for entire Delhi area.
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India’s Rivers in Extreme Floods in Oct 2025
In Oct. 2025, we could find at least 06 flood monitoring sites of Central Water Commission (CWC), where rivers have crossed their Highest Flood Levels (HFL) after the end of South West Monsoon season 2025 on Sept 30 2025. Of the 6 sites, 2 each are in Brahmaputra basin in W Bengal and Ganga basin in Bihar. 1 site Anantharam on Musi river in Telangana is part of Krishna basin and 1 site Marella on Gundlakamma river in Andhra Pradesh is part of East Flowing Rivers between Mahandi and Pennar basin.
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Open Letter Regarding Water Polluting Activities Around WYC in Bawana, Delhi
Respected Sirs, Oct 26, 2025
1. Shri Pravesh Sahib Singh,
Hon’ble Water Minister,
Delhi Government.
pss-pwd.minister@delhi.gov.in; dspwddelhi@gmail.com
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केवल सफाई नहीं, चाहिए समग्र यमुना नदी तंत्र संरक्षण नीति
दिल्ली चुनाव के दौरान यमुना नदी प्रदूषण एक अहम मुद्दा बना। चुनाव जीतने के बाद नई सरकार निरंतर यमुना सफाई को लेकर कई घोषणाएं और योजनाओं पर बात कर रही है। स्वयं प्रधानमंत्री और उसके बाद केंद्रीय गृहमंत्री, जल संसाधन मंत्री इसके लिए बड़ी बैठक कर चुके हैं। इन सबमें हरियाणा, दिल्ली और उत्तर प्रदेश सरकार द्वारा मिलकर कार्य करने की आवश्यकता सबसे सराहनीय पक्ष रहा है। सरकार द्वारा एसटीपी क्षमता विकास, औद्योगिक प्रदूषण रोकथाम, जल संचयन बढ़ाने और जल स्रोतों को बचाने की बातें भी कही जा रही है। पर ये सब बातें तो पिछली सरकारों द्वारा पहले भी कही जा चुकी हैं और बातों से आगे ठोस नीति और सफल निष्पदान कार्ययोजना की तरफ नहीं बढ़ पा रही है। इन सबके बीच यमुना नदी स्वास्थ्य में गिरावट जारी है।
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Yamuna Flood 2025: Is River Carrying Capacity, Pattern Changing?
(Feature Image: Sept. 06, satellite image showing Yamuna flood spread downstream Delhi. Credit: Raj Bhagat P)
During South West Monsoon 2025, the Yamuna has witnessed one low, one medium and one high flood spells in its upper segment. On account of good rainfall in the catchment, the river also received significant flows for about one and half month from last week of July 2025 upto first week of Sept 2025. Due to this flood spells and flows the water quality in Delhi stretch of the river improved significantly, though temporarily.
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Did Ichari, Vyasi Dams Influence Yamuna Floods in 2025?
(Feature Image: Ichari (Koti) Dam on Tons river in Dehradun in empty condition in first week of Sept. 25)
In the South West Monsoon 2025, the Yamuna river witnessed 3 flood spells in a span of two weeks between Aug. 17 and Sep 1. In the first and medium scale flood spell, hourly discharges crossed 1 lakh cusecs for 12 hours on Aug 17 and 1,78,996 cusecs flood was recorded at 16 hour at Hathnikund Barrage (HKB), in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana.
In the second and low scale flood spell, river received above 50,000 cusecs discharges for 21 hours on Aug. 29 with the peak volume of 83,774 cusecs at 16 hour. In the final and first high scale flood spell, hourly water volume in the river crossed 1 lakh cusecs for about 129 hours beginning at 4.00 hour on Sep 1 till 12:00 hour on Sep 5, and 3,29,313 lakh cusecs was recorded as peak flood volume at 9:00 hour on Sep 1.
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Oct 2025: 12 Drowned in Sand Mine Pit in Utangan river, Uttar Pradesh
(Feature Image: Search operation going on in Utangan river Agra to recover the bodies of victims)
In the latest example of how illegal sand mine pits are proving to be a death trap across the country; 12 people have lost their lives after falling in deep sand mine pit in Utangan river in Agra district. The incident occurred when 13 young and adult villagers entered the river and suddenly fell into the cavity around 1 pm Oct 2 on Dussehra near Dungarwala village under Khairagarh tehsil.
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National Dolphin Day 2025: Deaths, Threats, Conservation Efforts related to Gangetic Dolphins
(Feature Image: Carcass of a Gangetic dolphin found on Ganga river bank in Sahibganj district on Oct. 02, 2025)
Oct. 5 is marked as National Dolphin Day since 2022 after a decision by the NBWL in its 67th meeting in March 2022. Earlier the day was designated as Ganga River Dolphin Day. Bihar has been celebrating Oct. 5 as ‘Dolphin Day’ for the past many years. In May 2010, the MoEF had notified the Gangetic Dolphin as ‘National Aquatic Animal’ and in Aug. 2022 launched the Project Dolphin.
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Rivers in Extreme Floods During SW Monsoon 2025
This is the summary report of Highest Flood Levels (HFL) breach incidents which we could document from CWC’s flood monitoring website during South West Monsoon Season 2025. The monthly reports for HFL breach incident for July 2025, August 2025 and September 2025 can be seen by clicking the hyperlinks and the detailed final report can be seen here. SANDRP’s previous reports on the subject can be seen here: HFL breach incidents in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 (I), 2021 (II), 2022 (I), 2022 (II), 2023, and 2024.
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SANDRP 