Dilip R Ahuja

An Indian national GEF strategy

This paper describes the process of developing a national strategy for preparing, processing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating GEF projects in India. The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, requested the paper. A brainstorming meeting was organized to kick off discussions for the preparation of the strategy. Subsequently, several interviews were conducted in New Delhi with officials familiar with preparation and execution of GEF projects. The draft strategy was presented to the government in December 2002. The strategy identified the problems plaguing the current portfolio of GEF projects in India such as lack of impact, a stagnating portfolio with too many incoherent concepts and a lack of interest in GEF Council meetings. The paper proposes measures to address the identified problems and recommends actions to implement the elements of the strategy. Several of the recommendations such as the establishment of an interministerial coordination committee for GEF projects and the decoupling of the office of GEF Council Member from South Asia from the office of the Indian Executive Director of the World Bank have been accepted by the government.

Downstream channel changes and the likely impacts of flow augmentation by a hydropower project in River Dikrong, India

ABSTRACT The Dikrong River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra River Basin in India, has been receiving additional water from an adjacent river since 2002 under the operation of the 405 MW Ranganadi hydel project. Flow duration curves and indicators of hydrological alteration analyses reveal that the downstream river flow has been significantly altered post-2002. Examination of the channel pattern in a Geographic Information System environment using satellite images from 1973 to 2014 displays that the channel planform has also changed over time, wherein it has become wider, less meandering and more braided. Sinuosity decreased from 1.9 in 1987 to 1.66 in 2002 and has stabilized since then. Simultaneously, braiding increased from 1.55 (1987) to 1.81 (2014). The average bankfull channel width from 1973 to 2014 varied between 378 and 573 m. The river also displays erratic and unevenly distributed bank migration and erosion patterns. However, channel changes could be observed even prior to the hydel project’s influence through flow addition. Thus, this study analyses the temporal and spatial changes in downstream channel morphology of the Dikrong River and examines whether they have been influenced by the hydrological alterations caused by the hydel project.

Challenges for Sustainable Energy Development in India

The scope of environmental concerns of energy cycles (from extraction to use to disposal) has become increasingly broader. The first concerns pertained to the visible pollutants of the outdoor environment with localized effects. These have broadened to include inter alia social concerns in sustainable development and environmental problems increasing both spatially (indoor, regional, and global impacts) and temporally (from immediate to delayed and long-term effects). In India, successes have been modest in addressing environmental consequences of the energy sector. When the affected parties include the elites and the urban middle classes, the problem is more likely to be addressed than when it affects the poor and unorganized. Visible pollution has frequently been curtailed; invisible pollutants continue to be emitted. Air pollution has sometimes been controlled; controlling water pollution is less than exemplary. While the world is on its way to addressing stratospheric ozone depletion, climate change continues to defy an acceptable solution. Based on my personal professional experience of the past three decades, I attempt in this paper to provide a historical perspective of the successes, challenges, and unresolved implementation issues in the energy environment arena in India.