DRP 191026: India Disaster Management Must Shift from Response to Prevention

October 19, 2026October 19, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: A large part of residential areas witnessed severe flooding in first week of Oct. 2026 in Fazullaganj of Lucknow after heavy rains and flood in Gomti river. Source: Screenshot of FB post)

Two informative reports by Amal Chandra and Venkatesh Dutta in Down To Earth this week have once again highlighted serious gaps in India’s disaster management system. While our forecasting and response have improved in some cases, the number of disasters has also increased sharply. We often fail to understand the exact chain of events and remain reactive until the last moment. A key problem is that our system continues to focus more on response than prevention and lacks a holistic approach to disaster risk reduction.

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Yamuna River

Yamuna Mathan 1026: Can Damming Tributaries Revive the River?

October 15, 2026October 15, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Marking Yamuna Rivers Day on Oct. 7 to commemorate Yamuna crusader Manoj Misra’s 72nd birth anniversary, members of Nadi Mitra Mandli, school students and Home Guard personnel gather in Agra to discuss the importance of the Yamuna’s tributaries and raise awareness about their disappearance.)

The agreement to build the 236-m high Kishau dam on the Tons river raises serious concerns about the future of the Yamuna. Tons is a larger river system in upper basin and plays a vital role in sustaining Yamuna’s ecosystem. Ironically, the ₹15,000-cr project is being promoted in the name of Yamuna rejuvenation and being justified with baseless ‘rain water flowing in waste’ argument. These unconvincing and contradictory claims clearly underline the basic fallacy in the govt’s dam-building approach.

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Oct. 2026: Budhi Gandaki Flashflood Affects Four Hydro Projects in Nepal

October 13, 2026October 15, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Screengrab of BBC video report showing flood surge in Budhi Gandaki river damaging construction camp of 341 MW Budhigandaki HEP at Salleri in Gorkha district, Nepal in morning hours of Oct. 11, 2026)

The Budhi Gandaki river corridor in Nepal’s Gorkha district has witnessed a flash flood disaster causing extensive damage to public and private property. The flood reportedly began around 4:00 am on October 11, 2026, following the sudden breach of a landslide dam in a tributary of the Budhi Gandaki.

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Dams, Rivers & People

DRP 121026: Will India’s mining ravaged rivers get justice this time?

October 12, 2026October 12, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Google Earth May 2025 imagery showing Sone riverbed ravaged by excessive mechanized sand mining activities near Paliganj in Bihar)

In a significant development last week, the Supreme Court has expanded its illegal sand mining case from the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary to rivers across India. For over six months, the apex court has been hearing the matter and issuing directions to state governments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. However, the directions issued so far are yet to be fully implemented.

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Godavari · River Pollution

TOXIC EMERGENCY IN NASHIK AHEAD OF KUMBH MELA: GROUNDWATER TESTS 1,000 TIMES OVER SAFE CHROMIUM LIMITS

October 8, 2026October 11, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

PRESS NOTE — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Laboratory testing has confirmed acute toxic contamination ongoing in Ambad, Nashik, where residential borewell water has turned bright yellow, likely due to industrial hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] from the Ambad MIDC.

Local activists Roshan Kedar, Rajesh Pandit, their team and volunteers highlighted the issue and have been consistently following up with residents. Parineeta Dandekar, SANDRP visited the site and got the groundwater the sample tested in an accredited lab.

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Rainfall

High Rainfall days in India’s districts in July 2026

October 7, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

An analysis of the daily district wise rainfall data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) for July 2026 shows that there were 844 (718 in July 2025, 914 in July 2024, 855 in July 2023, 809 in July 2022 and 717 in July 2021) instances when district rainfall of a day was above 50 mm.

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Chambal · Dams, Rivers & People · Ganga · Gangetic Dolphins · Rivers Biodiversity

National Dolphin Day 2026: State of Gangetic Dolphins

October 6, 2026October 9, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Collage of Gangetic dolphin corpses found in UP, Bihar, Assam & West Bengal between Dec. 2025 & Aug. 2026.)

Marking the National Dolphin Day-Oct. 5, 2026-, this report highlights the deaths, threats and relevant developments concerning the national aquatic animal. In last one year, we have found reports of at least ten Gangetic dolphin deaths, including six in Uttar Pradesh, two in West Bengal, and one each in Bihar and Assam. The reported death toll is higher than in the previous two years, indicating continuing concerns over their survival.

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Dams, Rivers & People · Drought

DRP 051026: Drought: how prepared are we?

October 5, 2026October 6, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Weekly drought monitor map dated 23 Sept. 2026 shows drought condition in India. Credit: Vimal Misra/ Drought Monitor India )

The DRP issue this week seems to have one central theme, connecting the various parts: Deficit monsoon leading to reduced reservoir levels, increased pollution, mass fish deaths and announcements of unprecedented droughts in more than one state. Since it was known to be a super El Nino Year and even IMD had predicted (though ratgher conservatively) deficit monsoon, the ultimate deficit of 12.6% in SW Monsoon rainfall may in fact seem like bit of a relief. This was largely thanks to unexpected above average rainfall in the wettest month of SW Monsoon, July, largely due to favorable Indian Ocean Dipole.

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Floods · Highest Flood Level · Monsoon · Rivers

Rivers in Extreme Floods During SW Monsoon 2026

October 3, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

(Feature Image: Aerial view of a residential area inundated by Ganga floodwaters in Patna, Bihar on Sept. 10, 2026. Source: TNIE/Credit: PTI)

This is the final analysis of CWC’s flood monitoring sites where we could track rivers crossing their respective Highest Flood Levels (HFL) in months of July (at 15 sites), Aug. ( at 10 sites) and Sept. ( at 25 sites) during South West Monsoon Season 2026.

In addition, there are 2 sites where HFL breach has happened on Oct. 01, 2026 and 1 site where HFL breach is missed by narrow margin on Oct. 02, 2026. All the three sites are part of Ganga basin and details of the same is given in table 1 and 2 below.

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Rainfall

SW Monsoon 2026: District wise rainfall in India

October 2, 2026October 4, 2026 SANDRPLeave a comment

In the just concluded South West Monsoon 2026, India received 759.4 mm (937.2 mm in SW Monsoon 2025, 934.8 mm in SW Monsoon 2024, 820 mm in SW Monsoon 2023, 925 mm in SW Monsoon 2022 [i]) rainfall, about 87.4% (107.9% in 2025, 107.6% in 2024, 94.45 % in 2023, 106.5% in 2022) of the Normal SW Monsoon rainfall of 868.6 mm as per India Meteorological Department (IMD). The 2026 SW Monsoon rainfall is 4^th lowest since 2001 and first deficient monsoon since 2015. It is the 13^th lowest rainfall since 1901. This rainfall is categorised as deficient rainfall since deficit is over 10%.

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