Will the Sikkim flood impact hydel projects? (GS Paper 1, Geography)
Why in news?
- During the early hours of October 4, a sudden surge in the Teesta river washed away habitations in Sikkim, the Chungthang Dam, several bridges and parts of National Highway 10, leaving scores of people dead and missing and thousands homeless.
- As experts debate the reasons for the collapse, including the failure of automated weather stations, at two high-risk glacial lakes South Lhonak and Shako Cho, the focus is also on the status of other dams and hydel power projects in the State.
What triggered the floods?
- Experts point out that the floods in the Teesta river in Sikkim and West Bengal was triggered by a phenomenon called GLOF (Glacial Lake Outburst Flood).
- GLOF is a sudden release of water from a lake fed by glacier melt that has formed at the side, in front, within, beneath, or on the surface of a glacier. In case of the Sikkim floods, satellite images reveal a large chunk of ice may have fallen from the glacier into the lake creating waves that toppled the moraine dam leading to a GLOF and causing severe flash floods downstream in the Teesta.
- The South Lhonak lake is one of the most studied lakes for GLOF.
- The recent satellite images suggest the risk has not been eliminated despite the floods because the lake has not dewatered or drained substantially.
What is the status of hydel power projects?
- The collapse of the hydel power dam at Chungthang added to the devastation.
- The 1,200 MW Teesta Stage III hydro power project located at Chungthang village in Mangan district of north Sikkim was commissioned in February 2017 and in a little over six years, the dam collapsed.
- The Chief Minister of Sikkim raised the issue that the Central Water Commission while approving the project had said that it would be a concrete gravity dam whereas the dam constructed was a rock-filled dam that would not be able to withstand huge floods.
- The Chungthang dam, which has a majority stake of the State government under Sikkim Urja, has stopped generating electricity and has filed an insurance claim.
- After the floods, not only the Teesta Stage III hydro power project, but all the operational hydel power power projects on the Teesta river in Sikkim have practically become defunct.
- Electricity generation of about 1,806 MW from hydel power projects in Sikkim has come to a halt because of the floods.
- Along with the 1,200 MW Chungthang Teesta Stage III that was washed away by the floods, electricity generation at Teesta-V Power Station (510 MW), as well as Dikchu Hydroelectric Project (96 MW), has been stalled because of muck from the floods entering the power stations.
What lies ahead?
- After the GLOF-triggered Sikkim floods and widespread loss of lives and property, activists and scientists are calling for a rethink on proposed hydel power projects.
- 87 hydroelectricity projects (HEP) of installed capacity of 22,982 (MW) are operational across the Himalayan belt.
- Another 30 large HEPs (above 25 MW) with an installed capacity of 11,137 MW are being developed across the Himalayan belt. Five projects are proposed in Sikkim on the Teesta and other rivers.
- In Sikkim, the assessed hydro power potential is of 4,248 MW of which about 53.7 % (2,282 MW) has been developed and 24.4 % (1,037 MW) is being constructed.
India need to relook the Dam Safety Act?
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- India has almost 6,000 large dams and about 80% of them are more than 25 years old and carry safety risks. A new Dam Safety Act (DSA) was passed in late 2021.
- Recently, a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in North Sikkim’s South Lhonak Lake washed away one of the biggest hydropower projects in India, the Teesta III dam at Chungthang.
- Reports have since revealed there were no early warning systems, no risk assessment or preventive measures in place as required under the Act.
What are the provisions of the Act?
- The Dam Safety Act was a response to deficient surveillance and maintenance causing dam failure-related disasters.
- The Act listed key responsibilities and mandated that national and State-level bodies be established for implementation.
- It said a National Committee on Dam Safety would oversee dam safety policies and regulations;
- a National Dam Safety Authority would be charged with implementation and resolving State-level disputes;
- the Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC) would head dam safety protocols at the national level;
- a State Committee on Dam Safety (SCDS) and State Dam Safety Organisation (SDSO) would be set up.
- Sikkim formed an SCDS on August 17 with nine members and experts in hydrology and dam design.
What do the States need to do?
- Provisions require States to classify dams based on hazard risk, conduct regular inspections, create emergency action plans, institute emergency flood warning systems, and undertake safety reviews and period risk assessment studies.
- States were asked to report and record incidents of dam failures. Until now, no statutory provision required systemic reporting of failures and no single agency was tasked with tracking this data.
Is any action taken for failing to comply?
- Failure to comply with any provision of the Act is punishable with imprisonment and/or fines, and if such obstruction or refusal to comply with directions results in loss of lives or imminent danger thereof, entity shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years.
- For example, in February 2023, the Sikkim High Court ordered the Gati Hydropower Project company to pay ₹70 lakh to two widowed mothers, for non-compliance with the Dam Safety Act.
What are the challenges?
- 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.
How is dam safety undertaken?
- Dam safety is a function of many parts: designing and constructing dams that adhere to safety margins, maintaining and operating them per guidelines, recording data in real-time in an accessible format, forecasting hazardous events and instituting emergency plans, to name a few.
- The Sikkim GLOF reveals poor compliance at all levels, from the dam’s design to the spillway capacity (which controls the release of water from a reservoir).
- Hazard profiling and regular assessment are also mandated by the Act. Hazard risk fluctuates at the slightest touch, responding to climate change, urbanisation, and the way people/companies use water or where they are located.
- Periodic reviews are expected to bring forth fresh inundation maps and new rule curves (which determine the capacity of dam reservoirs), all of which contribute towards the safety of the downstream areas.
- Spillway capacity and other metrics should be reviewed every five years or so.
Non-compliance:
- The Act requires dam builders to conduct comprehensive dam safety evaluations, but “there is no standardisation of how the failure is analysed and reported.
- The Himachal Pradesh government recently served notices to 21 hydroelectric projects, finding them guilty of non-compliance with the DSA during the July-August floods.
Army’s Project Udbhav to tap indigenous military knowledge
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
Why in news?
- An ambitious effort for the integration of India’s “ancient strategic acumen” into the contemporary military domain and develop an “indigenous strategic vocabulary”, rooted in India’s “philosophy and culture”, was launched under Project Udbhav, by Defence Minister recently.
- The project’s objective is to synthesise ancient wisdom with contemporary military practices, forging a unique and holistic approach to address modern security challenges.
Background:
- Project Udbhav, a collaboration between the Army and the United Service Institution of India (USI), a defence services think tank, was launched at the first Indian Military Heritage Festival (IMHF) being organised by the USI.
- Going forward, a series of events and workshops will dwell on various facets of our strategic culture and culminate in January next year, with a publication, to document and institutionalise such knowledge.
- An initiative in this research was earlier taken by the Army Training Command, which after delving into the ancient Indian treatises such as Arthashastra by Chanakya and Nitisara by Kamandaki and the Mahabharata, compiled the “compendium of 75 stratagems”.
- Similarly, the College of Defence Management conducted a study to establish linkages between Indian culture and art of strategic thinking and these will also provide valuable inputs for the project.
The primary deliverables of Project Udbhav are to
- develop an understanding of ancient military system and indigenous strategic military culture through the study of evolution of Indian military system and strategic thoughts;
- educating junior military leaders and informing senior military commanders and academia about the theories concepts and teachings available in classical texts; and
- facilitating the creation of a knowledge pool for scholars and defence personnel for further studies, which will create an understanding of the relevance of these findings in a contemporary context.
Ancient Indian knowledge system:
- The objective of the IMHF is to acquaint future thought leaders with the dynamics of comprehensive national security with special emphasis on India’s strategic culture, military heritage, education, modernisation of security forces and Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India).
- Ancient Indian knowledge system was rooted in a 5,000-year-old civilisational legacy, which has attached great value to knowledge, with a large body of intellectual texts, world’s largest collection of manuscripts, thinkers and schools in so many domains of knowledge.
- To begin with, it is essential to understand the depth of knowledge systems and philosophies. It is only then one can comprehend their enduring connect, relevance and applicability in the modern day.
