No new hydel projects can come up in upper Ganga, govt. tells SC

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

21 MAY 2026

• In a significant submission to the Supreme Court, the Union government has said that no new hydroelectric projects should be permitted in the upper reaches of the Ganga in Uttarakhand, with the Ministries of Environment, Jal Shakti and Power presenting a single, restrictive position to the court.
• In a common affidavit filed on May 19, the three Ministries stated that apart from seven hydroelectric projects already commissioned or substantially built, the government was “not in favour of permitting any other new hydro-electric project in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basins in the upper reaches of the River Ganga in the State of Uttarakhand”.
• The hardened stand is notable for the Power Ministry’s concurrence; as recently as November 2024, it had argued for as many as eight projects.
• The seven projects cleared will have a total capacity of just over 2,150 MW and include some of the State’s largest projects. They are :
• 1,000 MW Tehri pumped-storage project on the Bhagirathi;
• 520 MW Tapovan Vishnugad on Dhauliganga, damaged by February 2021 Rishiganga flood;
• 444 MW Vishnugad Pipalkoti on the Alaknanda;
• 99 MW Singoli Bhatwari
• 76 MW Phata Byung on the Mandakini;
• Madhmaheshwar (small project)
• Kailganga-II (small project)
• Four have already been commissioned while the remaining three are 74% to 80% complete.
• The government’s rationale for letting these continue is that they have absorbed substantial public and private investment, none falls within the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone, and none was flagged by expert bodies. Halting them now would strand sunk costs without commensurate environmental gain, it said.
• In August 2024, the Supreme Court constituted the committee chaired by Cabinet Secretary T.V. Somanathan, with the three Secretaries (Environment, Jal Shakti and Power Ministries) and Uttarakhand’s Chief Secretary as members, directing it to give due consideration to Expert Body-II’s findings and place the Centre’s reasoning on record.
• The committee — whose recommendations have only become public with the affidavit — narrowed 21 projects under consideration to five: Bowala Nandprayag, Devsari, Bhyundar Ganga, Jhalakoti and Urgam-II.
• The Centre has now declined to accept even those five, citing the cumulative impact of “bumper-to-bumper” dams, seismic fragility, and a string of disasters, including the 2013 cloudburst and the Dharali flash flood of August 2025.
• “This is a wise and welcome step from the government that came out after more than a decade of wait,” Mallika Bhanot, an environmental activist and part of the Bhagirathi Eco-sensitive Zone monitoring committee.
• The case originates in the Kedarnath floods of June 2013, which killed at least 5,000 people.
• Halting hydel development in the State, the court directed the Environment Ministry to examine the role such projects played in amplifying the disaster.

Expert Body-1 and 2

• A 17-member committee led by environmentalist Ravi Chopra — Expert Body-I — concluded in 2014 that 23 of 24 projects examined would have severe impact on the ecology of the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi basins. A second panel under Vinod Tare of IIT-Kanpur, examining six developers’ projects, too found they “may not be taken up” in their present form.
• The Environment Ministry then set up Expert Body-II under B.P. Das, which in March 2020 took a markedly more permissive view, recommending 26 for implementation with design modifications to others. The Centre, however, only ever accepted seven.

2013 Kedarnath Flash Floods:

• Unprecedented rainfall combined with landslide debris severely damaged numerous hydel projects in the region, bringing the environmental impact of dam construction in high-altitude zones to the forefront of judicial and public debat

2021 Rishi Ganga / Chamoli Disaster:

• A massive flash flood, likely triggered by a glacial burst or rockfall, washed away the entire Rishi Ganga Hydel Project and severely damaged the Tapovan Vishnugad project, resulting in the loss of over 200 lives.

2025 Kheer Ganga/Bhagirathi flash floods

• Massive flash floods and debris movement caused huge damages.