DRP NB 201123: Inland fisheries need attention: World Fisheries Day 2023

November 20, 2023November 20, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Recreational fishers catching fish in Yamuna river downstream Wazirabad barrage in Delhi in June 2023. Image: BS Rawat, SANDRP.)

On the World Fisheries Day, celebrated on Nov 21 every year, there is urgent need to focus attention on the well-being of one of the poorest and socio-economically weakest and much neglected section of population: Inland fisherfolks. They are in huge number, more than 2 crore directly dependent on inland fisheries, many others indirectly dependent. They, unfortunately have no voice in development discourse or decision making processes, nor any even in mitigation measures. Creating an inland fisheries policy, department and institute in every state and at centre can be an important step forward.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 131123: Another Himalayan Disaster: 40 workers trapped in a tunnel in Uttarakhand

November 13, 2023November 13, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Ongoing rescue work inside Badkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi. Image Source: HT)

In yet another disaster in the Himalayas, at least 40 workers are trapped in an under-construction tunnel being constructed by National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL), among others. The Hindustan Times has wrongly named the construction company as Hydroelectricity Investment & Development Company Limited (HIDCL) possibly of Nepal govt. Some people at the location have informed us that it may take another day before the workers are rescued.

NHIDCL was not even sure of the total of number of workers, as they gave the number as 36, which was corrected by the district administration later on to 40. It is also strange to see the work going on even on a Diwali day. Another disturbing aspect is that all the workers are reportedly mostly from outside Uttarakhand, when Uttarakhand villagers are known to migrate in large numbers to outside the state for employment. This disaster thus raises a lot of questions, which will need answers once the workers are rescued safely. The workers are still trapped over 30 hours after the disaster. The work at the 4.5 km long tunnel is being built under Char Dham Road Widening project since over 4 years, and violations have been happening in the work since then, as we reported in 2019.

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DRP NB 301023: Top scientist Rajeev Raghavan emphasizes need to conserve River Fish

October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image:- Fish catch from a Ramganga stream in Pauri in June 2022. Bhim Singh Rawat/SANDRP)

It is rather rare when we hear the sane voice of a scientist like Rajeev Raghavan neglect of riverine fish conservation in India, from government, research bodies to down to grassroots level. Rajeev Raghavan, incidentally is among the 2% top scientists of the world by the Stanford University, USA. The over emphasis on fish in food, on marine fish, on exotic fish that has such a huge adverse impact on our biodiversity and lack of effort towards conservation of riverine fish are some of the key issues Raghavan emphasizes in this interview. He says most of the fish in the IUCN red list are riverine fish and yet there is so little understanding or effort to conserve such fish or their habitat.

If we see the discussions in the minutes of the meetings of the MoEF’s Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley Projects in spite of there being permanent presence of a representative of Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, we see non-existence of any concerns about the impact of the project in riverine fisheries or those who are dependent on them for livelihoods. In fact, we see the shocking spectacle of CIFRI scientists working as consultants to the hydropower companies, working to justify such projects on the highly biodiverse rivers including those of North East India.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 231023: Need to be a little serious about Dam Safety, Flood Forecasting, Use of Early Warnings

October 23, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Landslide warning board at Lakhwar dam site on Yamuna river. SANDRP, June 2015)

India need to relook the Dam Safety Act Experts say the Sikkim incident exemplifies blind spots in both legislation and implementation. The DSA does not promote risk-based decision-making and fails to incentivise transparency. Himanshu Thakkar, an environmental activist and coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, says that the frequency and scale of such disasters reveal a pattern of neglect: “It keeps happening regularly, people face disastrous consequences and we call these ‘natural disasters’. But there’s nothing natural about them.”

A robust DSA should allow different stakeholders to access information easily, but India’s framework falls short. “Dam safety is a public purpose function. Everything about dam safety, functions of all the institutions and committees and authorities, their reports, decisions minutes and agendas, everything should be promptly available to the public,” says Mr. Thakkar. “But nothing is in the public domain.” He adds that transparency is further obstructed when national and State bodies comprise government employees and engineers who worked on these projects, compromising objective decision making and lacking “people with a proven track record of taking independent decisions.”

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 161023: Kaddam Dam Rehabilitation in Telangana: Many more will need this

October 16, 2023October 16, 2023 SANDRP1 Comment

(Kaddam dam spilling over with flood waters in July 2023. Image Source: SM)

Telangana’s Kaddam Dam, built with inadequate spillway capacity, has seen multiple threats and disasters over the years, starting from the very first year after its commissioning in 1958. The dam again saw threat of being washed away during monsoon this year. The Telangana government has decided to rehabilitate the dam at a cost of Rs 640-700 Cr, by reconstruction of spillway and installation of new gates. We hope the new spillway capacity will be in line with the changed monsoon rainfall pattern and will be able to take care of the higher probable maximum precipitation and higher probable maximum flood. Though we are unlikely to get to know how this is going to happen, as the standard operating procedure of all dam owners in India is secrecy rather than transparency even in dam safety aspects. One also hopes this is done at the earliest, and till that is achieved, the dam rule curve will be changed to ensure the dam does not face disastrous situations during monsoon.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 021023: Why this culture of opaque governance around Joshimath?

October 2, 2023October 2, 2023 SANDRP1 Comment

(Feature Image: A temple collapses after the gradual ‘sinking’ of Joshimath in Chamoli district, on Jan. 08, 2023. PTI/HT)

It is clear that the Union and the Uttarakhand government did not want the reports prepared by different national institutes related to Joshimath Sinking, to be made public and the state High Court had to order it to do so. The government’s view of the report is clear from that. It took the judiciary so many months to finally order the report to be made public. What is it that the government wanted to hide? Why? From whom? Why is there this culture of opaque governance even in disaster management related issues? Is it growth fundamentalism that is driving the government as the single most factor? Or is it the arrogance and adamant attitude of the governance, not wanting to consider any questions raised against their decisions? Why is there so little faith in the people, society and transparent, accountable governance? Why is the judiciary allowing such a culture to prevail generally?

These are some of the key questions that arise from this and other such episodes.

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 250923: World Rivers vs Indian Rivers on Rivers Day 2023

September 25, 2023September 26, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Najafgarh drain loaded with polluted water joining River Yamuna downstream Wazirabad barrage in National Capital in June 2023: SANDRP)

Sept 24 is celebrated as the World Rivers day since 2005, the tradition started by river advocate Mark Angelo, who used to celebrate BC (British Columbia in Canada) Rivers day since 1980. There is some good news for rivers across the world in terms of decommissioning of dams, improving environment flows, movements to clean rivers, improve fish migration, protection of flood plains, room for the river, decommissioning of channelisation projects, among others.

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DRP NB 180923: Floodplain loss, the biggest in Asia, disaster in the making

September 18, 2023September 18, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Ongoing ghat work along Yamuna at Qudsia ghat, ISBT Dellhi. SANDRP, June 2023)

A floodplain, according to the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, is “any land area susceptible to being inundated by floodwaters from any source”. According to the report “Human alterations of the global floodplains 1992–2019”, over 460,000 sqkms of floodplain area was lost to agriculture, while another 140,000 sqkms was redeveloped to new areas over the existing floodplain. Continent-wise, Asia lost the biggest area of floodplains — a little over 200,000 sqkms — among all the continents. It was followed by South America (92,000 sqkms) and Africa (73,000 sqkms).

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DRP News Bulletin

DRP NB 110923: Another independent institution-CEC destroyed

September 11, 2023September 12, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Ramganga River near Marchula. SANDRP 08 Sept. 2023)

The Govt of India’s Sept 5 2023 notification reconstituting the Central Empowered Committee completely destroys the independent nature of this institution of accountability and course correction. This institution, set up by the Supreme Court in 2002 and reconstituted in 2008, worked as eyes and ears of the Supreme Court on environmental issues. The new committee has no independent members, it will be constituted by the MoEF, MoEF itself has such an abysmally poor track record.

The notification, reports said, diluted the CEC’s autonomy on four key counts: the committee will report to the ministry, instead of the SC; the ministry will pick all the members and the SC will have no role in the process; the ministry, and not the court, will fund the committee; the provision of having two NGOs in the committee has been done away with.

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DRP NB 04092023: Will National Ganga Mission too fail to clean up Ganga?

September 4, 2023September 4, 2023 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Untreated industrial effluents being dumped in Drain No. 6, Sonipat in May 2023.)

More than 7 years have passed since the central government launched Rs. 20, 000 crores Namami Gange Programme in May 2015 replacing Ganga Action Plan (GAP) and created National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) a nodal agency to implement the programme.

The NMCG has already missed the target of cleaning the Ganga by 2019 and then by 2020 due to improper planning and Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) as accepted by G. Asok Kumar, Director General (DG), NMCG in an interview to The Week in January 2023 further extending the target to 2026.

Though Namami Gange aimed to adopt a basin wise approach with focus on e-flows, afforestation, revival of tributaries, biodiversity conservation in participatory manner; so far it has extensively worked on creation of sewage treatment infrastructures in the states along the main stem of the river.

Despite that the ground situation is far from improving as shown in the The Hindu report below which reveals that about 80 percent of the overall budget is being spent on sewage infrastructure creation and by 2026, the treatment plants capacity would be able to treat at the most 60 percent of sewage generated only along the main stem of the Ganga river.

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