Krishnaswamy J - UEI Day 1 - Kochi Jan18

1. Future of India’s rivers: Challenges
and Opportunities
Jagdish Krishnaswamy

2. Scientist team
Mike Bonell, Jagdish Krishnaswamy,
Ravi S Bhalla, Shrinivas Badiger,
John Rowan, Nick A Chappell,
Wlodek Tych, Srinivas
Vaidyanathan, Mahesh Sankaran,
Susan Varghese, Naresh Vissa,
Trevor Page, Tim Jones & Ciaran
Broderick
Hydrologic & carbon
services in the
Western Ghats:
Response of forests &
agro-ecosystems to
extreme rainfall
events
Rainstorm over Aghanashini
experimental basins 27 August 2015

3. CHANSE: Coupled Human And Natural Systems
Environment for water management under
uncertainty in the Indo-Gangetic Plain

4. Riverine and Riparian ecosystems

8. Fluvial Processes
“the great sculptor of the riverscape”

11. River-floodplain habitats: Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary,
Bhagalpur, Bihar

12. 1976
1994
2015
2001
0____________25km
Flooding extent (2013)
River channel changes

13. Etroplus
suratensis
Tidal
effect:
Salinity
ingress
Microphis
cuncalis
Eubleekeria
splendens
Aplocheilus
lineatus
Devario
malabaricus
Lutjanus russeli
Salmophasia
boopis
Direction of
freshwater
flow
Fish
Migrate
upstream
to spawn
Sardinella
fimbrataRasbora
daniconius

14. Transformations
• Hydro-climatology
• Hydrologic alterations
• Sediment dynamics

15. Recent changes in Rainfall 1951-2007
June-November

16. Recent changes in Rainfall 1951-2007
June-November

17. Chaitanya, A. V. S. et al. Salinity measurements collected by fishermen reveal a ‘river in
the sea’ flowing along the east coast of India. Bull. Am. Meteorol Soc. (2014)
doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00243.1

18. Etroplus
suratensis
Tidal
effect:
Salinity
ingress
Microphis
cuncalis
Eubleekeria
splendens
Aplocheilus
lineatus
Devario
malabaricus
Lutjanus russeli
Salmophasia
boopis
Direction of
freshwater
flow
Fish
Migrate
upstream
to spawn
Sardinella
fimbrataRasbora
daniconius

19. Hydro-power and transformation of river-estuary ecology

20. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
00:05:00
01:30:00
02:55:00
04:20:00
05:45:00
07:10:00
08:35:00
10:00:00
11:25:00
12:50:00
14:15:00
15:40:00
17:05:00
18:30:00
19:55:00
21:20:00
22:45:00
Minihydel projects: “Green-wash”

21. River inter-linking will rip through 180
km through PAs, 1100 km through
forests

22. Panna Tiger
Reserve
Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILR)
Estimated submergence due to Ken-Betwa Link

23. Panna Tiger
Reserve
Submergence
zone
Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILR)
Estimated submergence due to Ken-Betwa Link

24. Market surveys
Artesinal fisheries and associated livelihoods

25. Waterways and the
wholesale modification of
India’s Rivers
Almost 90% of endangered Ganges
river dolphin habitat is in danger
Birds like Indian skimmer that depend on
undisturbed river stretches will be further
threatened
Of the last 4 wild breeding
populations of critically endangered
gharials in the world, 2 are planned
for full conversion to waterways
There is already very little
water in most of the
peninsular rivers for
waterways
Points in red indicate extents
of the 111 waterways

26. River dredging and channelization for waterways
• Dredging of river sediment can release contaminants and pollutants into the river
water including Arsenic
• Displace native fish habitat and river fisheries and local boat traffic that supports 10-12
Million people in Ganga basin alone
• Dredging of river bottoms can significantly alter sediment deposition and riverine
habitats for endangered species
• River dolphins acoustic signals are disturbed by heavy boat traffic and under-water
noise
(Kelkar et al. 2017)

27. Invasive fish species found in Indian rivers
Rainbow trout: Teesta & WG
Common carp: Arunachal & WG
Red bellied Piranha: Godavari
Mozambique Tilapia: Chalakudy
African catfish: Yamuna riverCommon carp: Ganga river Silver carp: Subansiri
Giant Gourami: Adyar river
Sucker mouth armored catfish:
Cauvery river

28. Challenges
• Indian rivers have undergone and are likely to
undergo large scale transformations due to
human activities and climate change
• The complex interactions of climate change, land-
use change and hydrologic and sediment
alterations are already having major impacts on
distribution and demographics of many aquatic
species and ecosystem services
• Need multi-disciplinary studies on policies,
mitigation and management responses

29. Case study and success story

33. Estimating Ecological Flows: Son River / Son Gharial Sanctuary

34. Estimating Ecological Flows: Son River / Son Gharial Sanctuary
Threatened flagship species of Son Gharial Sanctuary
Images: Tarun Nair, turtlesurvival.org, M.V. Shreeram
Gharial
Gavialis gangeticus
IUCN: Critically Endangered
Narrow-headed softshell turtle
Chitra indica
IUCN: Endangered
Indian Skimmer
Rynchops albicollis
IUCN: Vulnerable
Second longest (~ 210 km) riverine protected area in India.
One of only 4 known breeding populations of gharials in India.

35. Images: Tarun Nair
A. Installation of Capacitive Water Level
Recorder on the Sone River’s tributaries
B & C. Measurement of discharge and
cross sectional area for use of
Manning’s equation
A
C
B

36. Damage to gharial nest with eggs
Submergence of skimmer breeding habitat
on island, due to unseasonal and sudden
release of water from the dam

38. Discharge locations and estimates for Son, Banas and Gopad Rivers;
Son Gharial Sanctuary (January - February 2015)

40. What was achieved
• Instrumented and quantitative and field based
study of managing regulated flows from a dam
for minimizing ecological damage
• First ever experimental release of water from
a dam with downstream ecological
measurements
• A model for managing ecological flows in an
adaptive frame-work

41. CHANSE project updates: 24th August 2017
Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Tarun Nair, Nachiket Kelkar

43. Endangered biodiversity persisting
alongside irrigation water use
Sugarcane: sugar factories in the
area are a big draw
Intensive melon cultivation on
floodplains
Wheat crop nearing harvest time

44. Sampling design for field data
collection: Gandak River
Three sampling blocks
Each block with known and
working CWC gauging sites, sites
for monitoring ecological flows
and habitat quality
Coverage across the command
areas and canal divisions
Gandak River basin, Bihar and UP, India

45. Gharial, Gandak River, April 2014
© Tarun Nair, ATREE

46. Updates: CHANSE project

47. Survey in near-natural flow condition
• Barrage flow release timings: 25 Oct - 25 Dec 2017
for canal maintenance and repairs
• Surveys done in middle of this period: 10 Nov - 03 Dec ,
when the flow could be called near-natural
• Estimated discharge from barrage approx. 370 cumecs

49. The Gandak is a “losing river”
Distance from barrage (km)
Estimateddischarge(m3/s)

50. Gharial distribution and habitat mapping in the Gandak
N E P A L
I N D I A

51. N E P A L
I N D I A
River dolphin distribution and habitat mapping in the Gandak

52. Agriculture: inefficient and excess irrigation
• Currently, irrigation is about 25% in excess of actual crop needs
in the Gangetic Basin (HydroFlux India*)
• Can these wastages be avoided and the water utilized for
maintenance of river ecosystem services and biodiversity?
*HydroFlux India was a 3-year Indo-UK research project to study climate-land use-hydrology
linkages in the Gangetic basin. More details can be found here http://paramo.cc.ic.ac.uk/india/
Source: WWF-India

53. Solution space
• Linking water use efficiency in agriculture and
industry to restoring ecological flows in
representative sites
• Experimental and observational studies and
modelling on regulated releases from dams
and barrages
• Treated waste-water and managed wetlands
as in urban and peri-urban areas for ecological
revival

54. Acknowledgements
• Tarun Nair, Shishir Rao, Nachiket Kelkar,
Vidyadhar Atkore, Shivona Bhojwani and
Srinivas Vaidyanathan
• Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of
India and Indo-UK Water Centre