ENVIRONMENT LAW

Project on,
Impact of Construction of Dams on
Environment
Submitted by,

Sarthak Nema

Rishabh Dubey

Arpit Singh Arora

A11921613028
A11921613038
A11921613002

B.Com, LL.B (H); 7th Semester

Submitted to,

Ms. Lipika Sharma

INTRODUCTION
The environmental consequences of large dams are numerous
and varied, and includes direct impacts to the biological,
chemical and physical properties of rivers and riparian (or
"stream-side") environments. The construction of large dams
completely change the relationship of water and land,
destroying the existing ecosystem balance which, in many cases,
has taken thousands of years to create. Currently there are
around 40,000 large dams which obstruct the world's rivers,
completing changing their circulation systems: this is not going
to occur without dire environmental impacts. Throughout the
past few years, the negative impacts of dams have become so
well known that most countries have stopped building them
altogether and are now forced to invest their money into fixing
the
problems
created
by
existing
dams.
Approximately 3200 medium/major dams are constructed itself
in India till the year 2014.

TYPES OF DAMS
There are several types of dams:Check dams are small dams that help control erosion or
flooding or, capture runoff to provide water for cattle.

Diversion

dams divert river water to irrigate crops. Large

dams may be built for flood control, irrigation, and/or electrical
generation.
Flood

control dams are often earth dams - made of huge

mounds of clay, sand, gravel, and rock - but may instead be
made of concrete.
Hydroelectric dams are concrete marvels of engineering.
This section will examine mostly the large dams: flood control
and hydroelectric dams.

EFFECT OF DAMS

Interrupting Natural Cycles.

Armoring the Riverbed.

Removing Sediment.

Starving the River.

Changing Temperatures.

Stopping Fish Migration.

Erosion.

INTERRUPTING NATURAL
CYCLES
Dams alter the pattern of disturbances on which the plants
and animals of a river depend.
Many aquatic animals coordinate their reproductive
cycles with annual flood seasons.

Every

flood is valuable in that it takes nutrients from

the land and deposits them in the river, providing food for
the stream's residents.
Floods

also provide shallow backwater areas on

vegetated and shaded riversides; the young of many
animals depend on these backwaters to protect them from
predators too large to swim in these shallow waters.
Vegetation, too, depends upon these regular cycles of
flood.

Example:A fish on a certain river may only reproduce during April

of every year so that its offspring will have abundant food
and places to hide. If the normal spring flood never comes
because a dam holds the river back, the offspring will be
produced during a time when they cannot possibly survive.
If the fish breed during the next flood, which may be in
July or may be in October, its young will be born during
the wrong time of year and will have to contend with the
absence of their normal food supply and temperatures for
which they are not prepared.

ARMORING THE RIVERBED

If the dam is allowed to release water from its reservoir,

it will often do so only once in a while, rather than
frequently.

This leads to scouring and armoring of the riverbed.

The higher energy of the sudden floods picks up and

removes smaller sediments like silt, sand, and gravel, as
well as aquatic plants and animals, leafy debris, and
large woody debris. Complex sets of habitats are erased.

The riverbed below the dam becomes like a pavement of

cobbles and loses its value as habitat for plants, macro
invertebrates, and fish.

REMOVING SEDIMENT

The fast-flowing water became slow-moving water in the

reservoir above the dam: This loss of energy caused the
river's sediment to drop and and settle behind the dam.

Dams are not engineered to withstand an additional force

of tons of wet sediment pressing on their backsides: The
muddier the river, the faster this heap of sediment will
build up.

When energy builds up too high the dam may burst or

overflow, killing people and destroying settlements
downstream. In effect, a huge man-made waterfall has
been constructed, and will remain there until the dam
completely collapses.

STARVING THE RIVER

Dams hold back not only sediment, but also debris. The life of
organisms (including fish) downstream depends on the constant
feeding of the river with debris.

This debris includes leaves, twigs, branches, and whole trees, as

well as the organic remains of dead animals.

Debris not only provides food, it provides hiding places for all
sizes of animals and surfaces for phytoplankton and
microorganisms to grow.

Without flooding and without a healthy riparian zone, this debris

will be scarce. Although debris might come from the river above
the dam, it is instead trapped in the reservoir, and never appears
downstream.

The bottom level of the food web is removed. All in all, the loss
of sediment and debris means the loss of both nutrients and
habitat for most animals.

CHANGING TEMPERATURES

Rivers tend to be fairly homogenous in temperature.

Reservoirs, on the other hand, are layered.

They are warm at the top and cold at the bottom.

If water is released downstream, it is usually released

from the top of the dam, which means the water in the
river is now colder than it should be.

Many macro invertebrates depend on a regular cycle of

temperatures throughout the year. When we change
that, we compromise their survival.

For instance, a stonefly may feel the cold temperatures

and delay its metamorphosis. This may mean that at a
critical lifestage it will be living in the depth of winter
rather than in autumn as it should have been.

STOPPING FISH MIGRATION

Many fishes must move upstream and downstream to complete

their lifecycles.

Dams are often built without fish ladders. When fish ladders
are provided, they seldom work as needed. If enough adult
fishes do manage to climb above a dam, there remains the issue
of their young: how will they get back downstream?

Many are killed by predators while they wander in the slow

waters of the reservoir above the dam or in their fall downward
through the dam to the river below.

They aren't killed by the fall itself, but by the high levels of
nitrogen gas at the base of the dam. In other words, like divers
who go too deep, they get the "bends."

EROSION

Dams hold back the sediment load normally found in a river

flow, depriving the downstream of this. In order to make up for
the sediments, the downstream water erodes its channels and
banks.

This lowering of the riverbed threatens vegetation and river

wildlife.

Most ecosystems which experience flooding are adapted to this

and many animal species depend on the floods for various
lifecycle stages, such as reproduction and hatching. Annual
floods also deposit nutrients and replenish wetlands.

Hydropower practice of releasing large amounts of water in

powerful surges during the day in order to provide electricity
when demand and prices are highest, and cutting down flow
during the night in order to replenish reservoirs for the next day
causes erosion.

NARMADA BACHAO
ANDOLAN

Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh reached an agreement in 1963

stipulating a 425 feet high dam at Navagam in Gujarat to build the
Sardar Sarovar Dam. Another major dam was conceived at Punasa in
Madhya Pradesh to build the Narmada Sagar.

The Khosla committee constituted in the meanwhile by the

Government of India recommended a 500 feet high dam instead. With
the terminal dam to come up at Navagam, the Khosla committee
conceived over a thousand major, medium and minor works on the
Narmada, some of them multipurpose projects to yield a hydel power.
This fitted in with the vision of Gujarat to carry the Narmada basin
water to the remote Saurashtra and Kutch regions in the State to
irrigate the parched lands there and solve the perennial drinking water
problem of those areas.

This was simply unacceptable to Madhya Pradesh because the

grandiose vision was to be fulfilled entirely at its cost. It was so
because the main submergence and, consequently the larger
displacement were to take place in Madhya Pradesh.

The construction of dam threatened submergence by both projects

that was to take place in one of most fertile agricultural and rich
forest areas, mostly inhabited by the Scheduled Tribes and for
which a large number of people were to be displaced.

The dispute was finally referred to the Narmada Waters Dispute

Tribunal in 1969.

DECISION

It recommended a 455 feet high dam at Navagam and apportioned

the respective share in water and power of Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Rajasthan was also made a beneficiary.

But, It took six more years for the forest and environmental
clearance to come from the Centre.

But by this time the Narmada Bachao Andolan under Ms. Medha
Patkar had begun to take roots in the valley.

The Andolan not only opposed the construction of various dams

and reservoirs on the Narmada on ecological, ethnic and other
grounds but considered the rehabilitation package to be a small
answer to a gigantic problem.

A further delay took place when the matter was taken to the
Supreme Court. The apex court stayed the construction work at
Navagam (Sardar Sarovar) in 1995, directing the concerned States
to first complete the rehabilitation and replacement process. The
Supreme Court vacated its stay on the construction work on the
Sardar Sarovar.

THANKYOU