No new dams in upper Ganga: The Centre’s long-winding road to ‘consensus’ on the issue

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) filed a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court on May 19, 2026, formally stating that n...

What Happened

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) filed a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court on May 19, 2026, formally stating that no new hydropower projects will be permitted in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basins — the upper reaches of the Ganga river system — in Uttarakhand.
The affidavit states that only seven existing hydropower projects may proceed: four already operational and three that have made substantial physical and financial progress; no fresh clearances will be granted.
The government cited the ecological fragility, high seismic vulnerability (Seismic Zones IV and V), and biodiversity significance of the region — including its critical role as a headstream of the Ganga — as the basis for this position.
The region is highly susceptible to landslides, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), flash floods, avalanches, and cloudbursts.
This affidavit comes after more than a decade of deliberation triggered by the 2013 Kedarnath disaster and subsequent Supreme Court-mandated expert reviews.

Static Topic Bridges

The Ganga River System and Its Ecological Significance

The Ganga river system is India's largest river network, draining an area of approximately 8.6 lakh sq km and supporting the livelihoods of over 40 crore people. The upper Ganga basin — comprising the Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini, Pindar, and other tributaries in Uttarakhand — is the ecological source zone of the river. These rivers converge at Devprayag to form the Ganga proper.

The Bhagirathi originates from the Gangotri glacier; the Alaknanda from the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers.
The upper basin lies within the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot and contains critical habitat for snow leopard, Himalayan brown bear, and several endangered fish species including the Golden Mahseer.
The National Ganga River Basin Authority (now merged into the National Mission for Clean Ganga — NMCG) was established under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, to coordinate the river's rejuvenation.
The Ganga was declared a National River in 2008.

Connection to this news: The Centre's affidavit directly protects the ecological integrity of the upper Ganga headwaters — the section most critical for maintaining river flow, sediment transport, and aquatic biodiversity downstream.

Supreme Court's Role in Environmental Governance — The Hydropower Moratorium

Following the June 2013 Kedarnath disaster, which killed over 5,000 people and was attributed in part to infrastructure disruption from hydropower construction, the Supreme Court imposed a moratorium on environmental clearances for new hydro projects in Uttarakhand. The Court directed the MoEFCC to constitute expert bodies to study the ecological carrying capacity of the basin.

A 2014 expert committee chaired by environmentalist Ravi Chopra concluded that hydropower projects worsened disaster impacts and recommended against 24 proposed projects.
A 2015 committee under IIT-Kanpur's Professor Vinod Tare warned of serious ecological impacts from several projects, particularly those affecting minimum environmental flows.
The concept of "minimum environmental flow" (e-flow) — the minimum volume of water that must remain in a river at all times to maintain ecological function — is central to the ongoing litigation.
In 2018, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Supreme Court both separately addressed e-flow norms for the Ganga, eventually leading to a notification fixing e-flow standards.

Connection to this news: The May 2026 affidavit is the culmination of over a decade of Court-directed review — transforming a temporary judicial moratorium into an explicit executive policy of no new dam construction in the upper basin.

Seismic Vulnerability and Disaster Risk in the Himalayas

Uttarakhand falls almost entirely within Seismic Zones IV and V — the two most hazard-prone categories in India's seismic zonation map (Bureau of Indian Standards, IS:1893). The Himalayas are geologically young, tectonically active, and composed of fractured rocks prone to slope failure.

The 2013 Kedarnath disaster resulted from a combination of extreme rainfall, glacial lake outburst, and landslide-triggered flooding — amplified by construction activity that had destabilised slopes.
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) are an increasing threat as the Himalayan cryosphere loses mass due to climate change; the February 2021 Chamoli disaster (Rishiganga-Dhauliganga flood) demonstrated GLOF risks.
The Himalayan region hosts over 5,000 glacial lakes; the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has identified approximately 200 as potentially dangerous.
Large-scale tunnelling and reservoir creation in seismically active zones can trigger induced seismicity.

Connection to this news: The government's affidavit explicitly invokes seismic and GLOF risks as core reasons for the no-new-dams policy, grounding environmental governance in concrete disaster risk reduction principles — a key linkage for UPSC Mains answers on Himalayan development governance.

Key Facts & Data

May 19, 2026 — date of MoEFCC counter-affidavit to the Supreme Court committing to no new hydropower projects in the upper Ganga basin.
7 projects — the only hydropower schemes permitted to proceed (4 operational, 3 substantially progressed).
Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basins — the two principal upper Ganga tributaries covered by the no-new-dam commitment.
Seismic Zones IV and V — the highest-risk earthquake zones in India, covering all of Uttarakhand's upper reaches.
2013 Kedarnath disaster — the triggering event for the Supreme Court-imposed moratorium; over 5,000 lives lost.
Ravi Chopra committee (2014) — recommended against 24 proposed hydropower projects in the basin.
Minimum e-flow norms — environmental flow standards notified for the Ganga, requiring a minimum percentage of average seasonal flows to be maintained at all times.
The Bhagirathi has been accorded Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) status from Gangotri to Uttarkashi, restricting industrial activity.
NMCG (National Mission for Clean Ganga) operates under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.