Abstract
This article reviews the practices, policies and assessments of hydropower facilities in the upper Ganga basin and explores the main developments in hydropower infrastructure and accompanying land use changes over the past several decades. It introduces the policy framework and also includes a review of the social and political movements for and against hydropower development. It concludes with suggestions for alternative ways to measure energy and externalities that give importance to other water priorities and uses in the basin.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Chellaney B (2011) Water: Asia’s new battleground. Georgetown University Press, Georgetown
Immerzeel WW, van Beek LPH, Bierkens MFB (2010) Climate change will affect the Asian water towers. Science 328(5984):1382–1385
China Dialogue and Humanitarian Futures programme (2010) The waters of the third pole: sources of threat, sources of survival. Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre
Turral H., Jacob B, Jean-Marc F (2011) Climate change, water and food security. FAO water reports, Rome, p xxii
Malone E (2010) Changing glaciers and hydrology in Asia: addressing vulnerabilities to glacier melt impacts. United States Agency for International Development, Washington, DC
Hosterman HR, McCornick PG, Kistin EJ, Pant A, Sharma B, Bharati L (2009) Water, climate change and adaptation: focus on the Ganges River basin. Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions working paper NI WP 09-03, Duke University, August
Alternate Hydro Energy Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (2011) Study on assessment of cumulative impact of hydropower projects in Alaknanda and Bhagirathi basins up to Devprayag, vols I and II. Ministry of Environment and Forests, National River Conservation Directorate, Government of India, New Delhi, March
Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. http://cpcb.nic.in/water.php. Accessed 18 July 2012
Alley KD (2002) On the banks of the Ganga: when wastewater meets a sacred river. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor
Rodell M, Velicogna I, Famiglietti JS (2009) Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in India. Nature 460(7258):999–1002
Scott CA, Sharma B (2009) Energy supply and the expansion of groundwater irrigation in the Indus-Ganges basin. Int J River Basin Manag 7(2):119–124
Mustafa D, Wrathall D (2011) Indus basin floods of 2010: souring of a Faustian bargain? Water Altern 4(1):72–85
Bosshard P (2010) Down and out downstream: new study documents the forgotten victims of dams. Int River 27(1):14
Lahiri-Dutt K (2012) Large dams and changes in an agrarian society: gendering the impacts of Damodar Valley Corporation in Eastern India. Water Altern 5(2):529–542
Schwarzenbach RP, Egli T, Hofstetter TB, von Gunten U, Wehrli B (2010) Global water pollution and human health. Annu Rev Environ Resour 35:109–136
Mann M (2005) Ecological change in North India: deforestation and Agrarian distress in the Ganga-Jamna Doab 1800–1850. Environ Hist 1(2):201–220
Tian H, Lu C, Chen G, Xu X, Liu M, Ren W, Tao B, Sun G, Pan S, Liu J (2011) Climate and land use controls over terrestrial water use efficiency in monsoon Asia. Ecohydrology 4:322–340
Baviskar A (2005) In the belly of the river: tribal conflicts over development in the Narmada valley, Studies in social ecology and environmental history. Oxford University Press, Delhi
Dharmadhikary S (2005) Unravelling Bhakra: assessing the temple of resurgent India. Report of a study. Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Badwani MP
Gilmartin D (1995) Models of the hydraulic environment: colonial irrigation, state power and community in the Indus basin. In: Arnold D, Guha R (eds) Nature, culture, imperialism. Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp 210–236
Singh S (1997) Taming the waters: the political economy of large dams in India. Oxford University Press, Delhi
Wagle S, Warghade S, Sathe M (2012) Exploiting policy obscurity for legalising water grabbing in the era of economic reform: the case of Maharashtra, India. Water Altern 5(2):412–430
Bisht T (2009) Development-induced displacement and women: the case of the Tehri dam, India. Asia Pac J Anthropol 10(4):301–317
Drew G (2011) Ganga is ‘Disappearing’: women, development, and contentious practice on the Ganges River. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Kumar K (1996) Controversy over the Tehri dam and Sardar Sarovar: a case study of India’s two most controversial hydro electric projects and the devastation they are feared to bring about. Farm Digest Publications, Delhi
Mawdsley E (2005) The abuse of religion and ecology: the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Tehri Dam. Worldviews 9(1):1–24
McAnally EA (2012) Toward a philosophy of water: politics of the pollution and damming along the Ganges River. Denton. UNT Digital Library. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3643/. Accessed 27 July 2012
Yumnam J (2012) An assessment of dams in India’s North East seeking carbon credits from Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Citizens’ Concern for Dams and Development, Manipur
Government of India (2010) Report of (IMG) Inter Ministerial Group: to evolve a suitable framework to guide and accelerate the development of hydropower in the North Eastern Region, New Delhi, February
Menon M, Kohli K (2005) comp. Large dams for hydropower in Northeast India: a dossier. South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People and Kalpavriksh, New Delhi
Vagholikar N, Das P (2010) Damming Northeast India. Kalpavriksh, Aaranyak and ActionAid India, Pune/Guwahati/New Delhi
Dharmadhikary S (2008) Mountains of concrete: dam building in the Himalayas. International Rivers, Berkeley
Dharmadhikary S (2010) The protocol of vested interests. India Together. www.indiatogether.org/2010/nov/opi-protocol.htm. Accessed 3 June 2013
Sreekumar N, Dixit S (2010) Electricity for all. India Together, 17 September 2010. www.indiatogether.org/2010/sep/env-zforall.htm
Drew G (2012) Ecological change and the sociocultural consequences of the Ganges River’s decline. In: Johnston B et al (eds) Water, cultural diversity, and global environmental change: emerging trends, sustainable futures? UNESCO-IHP, Paris, pp 203–218
Tripathi PS (2011) Damning audit. Frontline 27 (Nov. 20–Dec. 03, 2010). http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2724/stories/20101203272404900.htm. Accessed 10 May 2011
Alley KD (2011) The disappearing rivers of India. Asia Pacific Memo, 15 November 2011. http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/the-disappearing-rivers-of-india. Accessed 4 June 2012
Government of India (2010a) Draft National Water Policy, 2012. www.scribd.com/doc/133562462/Draft-National-Water-Policy-2012
Government of India (2011) Ministry of Environment and Forests Notification for Eco-Fragile Zone on Upper Bhagirathi, New Delhi, 18 December 2012. http://moef.nic.in/assets/2930.pdf. Accessed 3 June 2013
Strang V (2011) Fluid forms: owning water in Australia. In: Strang V, Busse M (eds) Ownership and appropriation. Berg, Oxford, pp 171–196
Seth BL (2012) National water policy, silent on priorities. Down to Earth. www.downtoearth.org.in/content/national-water-policy-2012-silent-priorities
World Bank (2011) India – Vishnugad Pipalkoti hydro electric project. The World Bank, Washington, DC. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2009/11/11427475/india-vishnugad-pipalkoti-hydro-electric-india-vishnugad-pipalkoti-hydro-electric-project. Accessed 3 June 2013
Lerch D (2010) Making sense of peak oil and energy uncertainty. In: Heinberg R, Lerch D (eds) The post carbon reader: managing the 21st century’s sustainability crises. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp 207–210
Alley KD (2004) The making of a river linking plan in India: suppressed science and spheres of expert debate. India Rev 3(3):210–238
Bhaduri A (2012) Citizens voice alarm over recent Supreme Court judgement on interlinking of rivers: the directive urges the Government to begin work on the proposal. India Water Portal. http://www.indiawaterportal.org/post/26045.
Feroze AM, Ahmad QK, Khalequzzaman M (eds) (2004) Regional cooperation on transboundary rivers: impact of the Indian river-linking Project. MatiarManush. alt, Bangladesh PoribeshAndolon, Dhaka
Zawahri NA, Hensengerth O (2012) Domestic environmental activists and the governance of the Ganges and Mekong Rivers in India and China. Int Environ Agreem Polit Law Econ. Springer 12(3):269–298. doi:10.1007/s10784-012-9179-9
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alley, K.D. (2014). The Developments, Policies and Assessments of Hydropower in the Ganga River Basin. In: Sanghi, R. (eds) Our National River Ganga. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00530-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00530-0_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-00529-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-00530-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)