Lok Sabha Question No. 27 (STARRED), answered on 2022-02-03
Subject: Impact of River Bank Erosion
Ministry: JAL SHAKTI
Asked by: Pradyut Bordoloi, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF JAL SHAKTI, DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT & GANGA REJUVENATION

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. † *27

ANSWERED ON 03.02.2022

## IMPACT OF RIVER BANK EROSION

## †*27.   SHRI PRADYUT BORDOLOI SHRIMATI MANEKA SANJAY GANDHI

Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has assessed the impact of annual river bank erosion caused by flooding of rivers in Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh; (b)  if  so,  the  details  thereof  in  terms  of  environmental,  economic  and  social  costs  and  if  not,  the reasons therefor; (c)  whether  the  Government  has  collected  data  on  the  number  of  people  displaced  due  to  annual flooding in each of these States, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; (d) the details of adaptation and mitigation measures taken in this regard; (e) whether the Government has received any proposals/requests from the said States to solve the issue/problem and if so, the details thereof and the response of the Government thereto; and (f) whether the Government has conducted any consultations with local stakeholders with regard to solving issues of flooding and soil erosion and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI (SHRI BISHWESWAR TUDU ) (a) to (f) : A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

******

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF STARRED QUESTION NO *27 TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 03.02.2022 REGARDING 'IMPACT OF RIVER BANK EROSION'  ASKED  BY  SHRI  PRADYUT  BORDOLOI  and  SHRIMATI  MANEKA  SANJAY GANDHI, HON'BLE M.Ps.

(a) to (c) : Erosion, movement and deposition of sediment in a river are natural regulating functions of a river. Rivers  tend  to  maintain  a  balance  between  the  silt  load  carried  &silt  load  deposited,  maintaining  a  river regime. Soil erosion caused by heavy floods is a matter of concern as it leads to several associated problems like  changes  in  river  course,  causing  loss  of  land,  etc.  Floods  are  natural  calamity  that  the  country  faces almost every year, in varying degrees of magnitude. The occurrence of floods can be attributed to various factors, including wide variations in rainfall both in time and space with frequent departures from the normal pattern, inadequate carrying capacities of rivers, river bank erosion and silting of river beds, landslides, poor natural drainage in flood prone areas, snowmelt and glacial lake out-bursts.

Flood management including erosion control falls within the purview of the States. Flood management and anti-erosion schemes are formulated and implemented by concerned State Governments as per their priority. The  Union  Government  supplements  the  efforts  of  the  States  by  providing  technical  guidance  and  also promotional  financial  assistance  for  management  of  floods  in  critical  areas.  The  Government  of  India  has been making continuous efforts to assist the State Governments in effective flood management and erosion control. Morphological Studies by various IIT and NIIT have been carried out for major rivers like Ganga, Sharda, Rapti, Kosi, Bagmati, Subansari, Krishna, Mahanadi Mahanada, etc. These Studies aid in finding the vulnerable spots for bank erosion/deposition, aggradations/ degradation etc. As per the morphological study of Brahmaputra River conducted by CWC through consultancy from IIT Guwahati, it has been estimated that in  the  Brahmaputra  river  a  total  erosion  of  252.6  sq.km  and  deposition  of  118.6  sq.km  occurred  between 2003-05 and 2008-11. As per the morphological study of river Ganga carried out by IIT, Roorkee, the total eroded area in the Ganga river from Devprayag to Farakka barrage in the period 1970-2010 is 447 km 2 while the total deposited area in extreme left and right banks shifting is 1070.94 km 2

Central Water Commission compiles flood damage data on the basis of information received from States. Statement showing average annual flood damages during last twenty years in State of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is given at Annexure-I.

(d)  Flood protection and flood management measures are broadly classified as under-

(i)  Structural  Measures  -  The  measures  for  flood  control  which  bring  relief  to  the  flood  prone  areas  by reducing flood flows through storages or confining the flows within banks by construction of embankments and thereby reducing the flood levels.

(ii)  Non-Structural  Measures-  Facilitating  timely  evacuation  of  the  people  and  shifting  of  their  movable property to safer grounds by having advance warning of incoming flood through setting up a flood forecasting system.  Discouraging  creation  of  valuable  assets/settlement  of  the  people  in  the  areas  subject  to  frequent flooding i.e. enforcing flood plain zoning regulation.

Integrated flood approach aims at adopting judicious mix of structural and non-structural measures to provide protection against flood damages at an economic cost.

To strengthen the structural measures of flood management, during XI & XII Plan, Ministry has launched Flood Management Programme (FMP) for providing Central Assistance to States for works related to flood management, anti-erosion,  drainage  development,  anti-sea  erosion,  etc.  which  subsequently  continued  as  a component of "Flood Management and Border Areas Programme" (FMBAP) for the period from 2017-18 onwards.  So  far  Central  Assistance  amounting  to  Rs.  6447.76  Crores  has  been  released  to  Union Territories/State Government under this Programme. The projects completed under this Programme and area protected in the States of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is at Annexure II

For Non structural measures, Central Water Commission (CWC) is the nodal Organisation entrusted with the task of flood forecasting & early flood warnings in the country. Presently, CWC issues flood forecasts for 331 forecasting  stations  (199  river  level  forecast  stations  &  132  dam/  barrage  inflow  forecast  stations).  These stations cover 20 major river basins in 23 States & 2 Union Territories. The number of forecast stations has increased from 175 in the year 2014 to 331 in the year 2021. In order to provide more lead time to the local authorities  to  plan  evacuation  of  people  &  remedial  measures,  Central  Water  Commission  (CWC) has developed basin wise rainfall-runoff mathematical modelling for issuing 5 days advance flood forecast advisory at identified flood forecasting and inflow forecasting stations along rivers of India. Flood forecasting stations in the State of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar & Uttar Pradesh are as under

| States        | Inflow Forecasting Station   |   Flood Level Forecasting Station |   Total Forecasting Stations |
|---------------|------------------------------|-----------------------------------|------------------------------|
| Assam         | -                            |                                30 |                           30 |
| West Bengal   | 4                            |                                12 |                           16 |
| Bihar         | 2                            |                                40 |                           43 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 5                            |                                39 |                           44 |

(e)  &  (f)  Government  of  India  has  been  receiving  proposals  from  the  different  States/Union  Territories  for inclusion of flood management/anti-erosion projects for central assistance under ongoing Flood Management and Border Area Programme (FMBAP) of Ministry of Jal Shakti. The new projects under FMBAP could not be included for central funding as the Scheme during 2017-21 had the provisions for prioritized completion of ongoing projects only. During last five years central assistance of Rs. 472.64 Crores, Rs.284.07 Crores, Rs. 292.63 crores & Rs. 230.99 Crores has been released in respect of ongoing projects of the States of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh respectively. However, provision has been kept for inclusion of new projects  of  flood  management/anti-erosion  for  central  assistance  during  the  period  2021-26.  In  order  to formulate the strategy for flood management works in the entire country and river management activities and works  in  the  border  areas  for  period  2021-  26,  a  Committee  was  constituted  by  NITI  Aayog  under  the chairmanship  of  Vice  Chairman,  NITI  Aayog  wherein  the  views  of  Government  of  Assam,  West  Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on issues related to floods were considered.

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (A) TO (C) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. *27 TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 03.02.2022 REGARDING 'IMPACT OF RIVER BANK EROSION'  ASKED  BY  SHRI  PRADYUT  BORDOLOI  AND  SHRIMATI  MANEKA  SANJAY GANDHI, HON'BLE M.PS.

Annual Average Flood Damage Data during last 20 years 2000-2019 in the States of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

| Name of State                                              |   Assam |   West Bengal |   Bihar |   Uttar Pradesh |
|------------------------------------------------------------|---------|---------------|---------|-----------------|
| Area affected in mha                                       |    0.49 |          0.62 |    1.03 |            0.42 |
| Population affected in million                             |    3.27 |          4.71 |    6.85 |            2.23 |
| Damage to Crops Value in Rs. Crore                         |   52.57 |       1335.22 |  170.97 |          117.82 |
| Damage to Houses value in Rs. Crore                        |   23.86 |        977.35 |  140.55 |           26.43 |
| Cattle lost in nos.                                        | 9367    |      10908    |  930    |          529    |
| Human lives lost in nos.                                   |   72    |        195    |  280    |          263    |
| Damage to public utilities in Rs. Crore                    |  657.47 |        549.77 |  193.35 |          305.31 |
| Total damages crops, Houses &Public Utilities in Rs. Crore |  726.26 |       2719.23 |  495.87 |          410.49 |

## Annexure-II

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (D) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. *27 TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 03.02.2022 REGARDING 'IMPACT OF RIVER BANK EROSION' ASKED BY SHRI PRADYUT BORDOLOI AND SHRIMATI MANEKA SANJAY GANDHI, HON'BLE M.PS.

Area protected and population benefitted by completed projects under Flood Magement Programme (FMP) component of FMBAP in the States of Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

|   Sl. No | State         |   Projects in numbers |   Area benefitted (Hectares) |   Population benefitted (Numbers) |
|----------|---------------|-----------------------|------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
|        1 | Assam         |                   105 |                       670314 |                          16063422 |
|        2 | West Bengal   |                    16 |                        93736 |                           2357250 |
|        3 | Uttar Pradesh |                    24 |                       264862 |                           3964469 |
|        4 | Bihar         |                    42 |                      2867117 |                          22345566 |

******