Not large ones; even less large hydropower projects led to ecological destruction
RTI reveals how Malana-I, II, and Parvati projects crumbled due to poor dam management and failed floodgates, and wreaked havoc
Dams turning water bombs in Himachal
A middle-aged man with his face half-hidden under a safety helmet fitted with a flickering torch breathlessly declares in a panicked voice.
“Bhaiyo… Malana Dam fatt gaya hai! Nadi, nalluh se door raho… Apni jaan bachao!” (Brothers, the Malana Dam has burst! Stay away from rivers and mountain streams… save your lives!
His words echo like an alarm, carrying the message of urgency, cutting through the chaos, the noise of a torrential water storm.
A moment later, a large volume of gushing water burst from the dam—a concrete gravity reservoir at an elevation of 2,543 meters, 3 km downstream from the iconic village of Malana—wreaking havoc in the ecologically fragile valley. Several houses, the farmland, and heavy infrastructure, including roads, bridges, footbridges, and water supply schemes, were washed away in massive floods.
“More than 160,000 cubic meters of water (flash flood) caused the bursting of the Malana dam after a terrifying cloudburst and relentless monsoon rains in the higher catchments on August 1, 2024, swept away everything downstream. It looked like everything—fields, trees, vehicles, machinery, temples, bridges, etc.—was floating in the water tides—a shocking trial of destruction and damages.” Recalls Manshi Asher, an environmental justice activist working in the Himalayan region.
She also maintains that, as per official reports, the 2023 floods in Himachal Pradesh were worsened by the dam water release, prompting allegations of negligence against the hydropower operators. Now, the RTI analysis of the site inspection report has also made new revelations about safety issues.
This was just months after Himachal Pradesh had suffered the worst-ever natural calamities in 2023, leaving more than 500 people dead and hundreds homeless/landless. Kullu became the epicentre during the deluge after massive rains, cloudbursts, flash floods, and landslides. Affected families lost their shops and businesses, their main avocations. Total loss to public infrastructure was estimated at Rs 10,000 crores.
Yet again this year, relentless rain and cloudbursts wreak havoc across the Seraj area of the Mandi district, also not leaving Kullu a house due to several mega- and small hydropower projects. Shocking visuals from Kullu show the Malana-I Hydropower Project site collapsing amid flash floods, sweeping away heavy machinery.
A sudden water surge triggered by the collapse of the Malana-I hydel project’s cofferdam unleashed flash floods on August 2, 2025, sweeping away heavy machinery, rock breakers, dumpers, and other vehicles. The disaster crippled the region’s connectivity, as the sole bridge linking Malana village to the outside world was thoroughly washed away, cutting it off from all access.
Dozens of houses were razed; agricultural land and apple orchards were also damaged and filled up with debris and boulders, as parked vehicles were washed away by the fury.
Environmentalists attribute frequent disasters and extreme weather events to climate change as the primary factor. Still, devastation to public and private infrastructure is attributable to human-induced activities.
Before the state government sanctioned a series of hydropower projects in districts like Kullu, Shimla, Chamba, Mandi, Kinnaur, and Lahaul-Spiti to harness the state’s power potential and started using steep cutting of the hills or blasting to make tunnels, the flash flood-related destruction had never been of such a magnitude, admits Shashi Kant, a Kullu-born senior journalist.
Last week, the Supreme Court, treating a petition as a PIL, made some of the strongest observations.
The Bench observed that humans, not nature, are responsible for phenomena such as continuous land sliding of mountains and soil, landslides on roads, and the collapse of houses and buildings. The court said major causes of destruction in the state are hydropower projects, four-lane roads, deforestation, and multi-story buildings.
A state Energy Department inquiry into the collapse of the Malana-I, Malana-II, and Parvati projects, which severely hit the Parbati Valley and Malana’s downstream areas in the July-August 2023 flash floods, has exposed serious lapses in dam management and a shocking indifference by project companies towards the safety of nearby residents. There is neither a proper early warning system nor a mechanism to minimise the damage.
The dam has twice exceeded its storage capacity. With no auxiliary spillway in place to handle emergencies like jammed floodgates, the risk of a catastrophic breach looms dangerously over the region.
The inquiry report was shared with the Himalayan Advocacy Centre, a public interest environmental law organisation, in response to its RTI, and said, “No doubt cloudburst incidents are unpredictable and unstoppable, but we can manage to minimise the damage/losses and to safeguard valuable lives and infrastructure.”
It further said, “Both the projects Malana-I and Malana-II need to improve monitoring and the Early Warning System for such events. The projects must also strive hard to have a comprehensive network of weather RADAR, automatic rain gauges, and, most importantly, the river discharge sensors for real-time data acquisition and forecasting accuracy.
The findings also pointed to the project promoters’ negligence in dredging the river to remove silt and debris, despite clear directions from the Energy Department. This lapse increases the risk of flash floods during heavy rains, threatening villages and critical infrastructure downstream.
Sumit Mahar, an environmental activist who has compiled a study on the impact of hydel projects and dams, says, “It’s not just the question of saving Himachal Pradesh from disasters and the adverse impact of hydel projects/dams, but the entire Himalayas, if the pattern of the flash floods and environmental damages is closely studied.”
The RTI analysis of the inquiry report/site inspection reveals widespread safety and regulatory failures, a non-functional early warning system, a missing dam break analysis, and other significant lapses.
The floodgates of the Malana-II project failed during the cloudburst, causing the water level in the storage reservoir to rise and subsequent destruction downstream after the collapse.
Forget how much destruction mega projects can cause; small projects also contribute to the severe ecological imbalance. These have also led to serious natural calamities, destabilisation of mountains resulting in landslides, and drying up of rivulets and drinking water sources. Thousands of forest trees were felled to make way for these small projects.
The Nathpa Jhakri hydel project (1500 MW)—one of the most significant hydel projects, built at 8,187 cr after diverting Satluj water through a 27.4 km headrace tunnel in the 1990s—has also remained in controversy for severe environmental damages and felling of hundreds of forest trees. Other projects, viz Karcham Wangtoo (1091 MW) and upcoming projects like Jangi Thopan Powari (804 MW), are facing stiff opposition from the tribals and green activists in Kinnaur. The project is envisaged to have a concrete gravity dam 48 meters high from the riverbed level on the Satluj.
“The projects have destabilised the hills and triggered frequent landslides, besides resulting in ecological changes in Kinnaur’s cold desert region. There is a visible impact on the agricultural activities, traditional cropping pattern, fruit crops, and livelihood,” says S.K. Negi, a green activist.
Several private sector hydropower projects in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, are facing opposition from locals and environmental activists due to concerns about the region’s ecological fragility, potential for landslides, and impact on local livelihoods. Specifically, projects like the Kashang Hydroelectric Project and others on the Sutlej River and its tributaries have been criticised for their potential to cause geological instability, deforestation, and the displacement of communities.
In the last cabinet meeting, the state cabinet cleared a proposal to invite fresh proposals for 172 small hydropower projects. Twenty-two other projects above five MW were also cleared for inviting fresh proposals. The state government is going ahead with setting up more hydel projects in the state.
The state government is instead viewing the hydropower project as its biggest revenue spinner. It’s because of these regions that Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu has put brakes on the handing over of three hydel projects to Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Ltd. to insist that the shares of free power (royalty) be raised at a rate of 12, 18, and 30 percent and the return of the project to the government after 40 years of life.
Last month, the Supreme Court allowed the government to get 18% free power from the Karcham Wangtoo hydroelectric project, which is operated by JSW Hydro Energy Limited in Kinnaur.
On a larger point, Sumit Mahar cites a 2024 investigation by German non-profit CORRECTIV that 3.8 million carbon credits from Indian projects, mostly from four Himachal hydropower projects, failed to deliver promised offsets. Despite being branded as “clean energy,” these dams/projects have already come under fire for worsening the 2023 floods.
“As the climate crisis deepens, hydropower in the Himalayas is proving to be a dangerous illusion of green energy,” he says.
