Efforts were made in the past to persuade the State Governments to

expedite enactment of a suitable legislation. The X Plan Working Group on

flood management also stressed upon the need of enactment of legislation for
flood plain zoning. Central Water Commission has been continuously
impressing upon the States for necessary follow-up action to implement flood
plain zoning approach. To facilitate this effort, CWC has prepared pamphlets
depicting essential features of flood plain management and circulated it to all
the State Governments. Manipur and Rajasthan enacted the legislation in
1978 and 1990 respectively whereas it is still under consideration in the
States of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab,
Tripura and West Bengal. Haryana, Delhi and UP considers that existing laws
are sufficient to serve the intended purpose.

Prerequisite for implementation of flood plain zoning regulation is the

availability of survey maps on suitably large scale to enable proper zoning of
vulnerable areas. The Central Water Commission had initiated in 1978 a
programme for such surveys under the Central sector through the Survey of
India as a pilot scheme, to assist the State Governments in preparing flood
risk maps. Out of the identified area of 1,06,000 sq km for flood risk
mapping, survey in about 55,000 sq. km., to the scale 1:15,000 with contours
at an interval of 0.3 to 0.6 m, have been completed in the States of Bihar,
Assam, UP, West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana and J&K and sent to respective
State Governments as well as to Ganga Flood Control Commission (GFCC) &
Brahmaputra Board for preparation of flood risk zone maps

A Working Group under National Natural Resources Management

System (NNRMS) Standing Committee on Water Resources (SC-W) for flood
risk zoning of major flood prone rivers considering remote sensing inputs was
constituted by MOWR during June 1999 to examine availability of data, maps
reports etc. for a test case such as the flood plains of Ganga; prepare
guidelines to undertake scheme of flood risk zoning using remote sensing &
other data and formulate a pilot project proposal for implementation.

The Working Group finalised broad methodology to be followed in flood

risk zoning and formulated guidelines for the same. Two flood plain reaches,
one on main Ganga river and another in the Brahmaputra basin were selected
for taking up pilot projects for flood risk through GFCC and Brahmaputra
Board.

3.6 RIVER MORPHOLOGY

A. Preparation of report on Morphological characteristics of rivers

• Special morphological study of river Kosi and Gandak has been undertaken by
CWC during 2003-04. Under the study, status report on the Kosi and the
Gandak rivers are being prepared for further study. With the help of remote
sensing data, the river shifting characteristics have to be determined. Data
collection on these rivers have been entrusted to field formations under the
Chief Engineer, Lower Ganga Basin, Patna.

• A committee of officials from CWC, CWPRS, NIH, GSI, GFCC etc. has been
proposed and the proposal has been submitted to the competent authority for
approval in Sep., 2003. The committee will examine the status report and
decide future course of action.

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