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Environment and Disaster Management › Disaster Management

Man made and structural hazards

Dam failures, industrial accidents and chemical releases: the hazards that people build, and the law that governs their safety.

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StandardPrelims and Mains30 Jun 2026

The Dam Safety Act, 2021 came into force on 30 December 2021. It makes the surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of specified dams a statutory duty of their owners, with set timelines.
A specified dam is one over 15 m high, or 10 to 15 m high if it meets prescribed technical criteria.
The Act sets up a four tier structure:

Tier	Body	Role
National policy	National Committee on Dam Safety	The apex policy body, constituted in February 2022
National regulator	National Dam Safety Authority	The regulatory and implementing arm
State policy	State Committees on Dam Safety	Policy for each State
State operations	State Dam Safety Organisations	Surveillance, inspection and compliance; all 31 dam owning States have one

A government backgrounder of 15 May 2026, before the monsoon, set out the state of India's dams: 6,628 specified dams, third in the world, holding about 330 billion cubic metres.
1,681 dams, about 26 per cent, are over 50 years old, 291 of them over a century; 98.5 per cent belong to State governments.
All are registered on the DHARMA database; about 13,000 inspections are carried out a year, before and after each monsoon.
The post monsoon inspections of 2025 put 3 dams in Category I, with critical deficiencies, and 188 in Category II, with major ones.

Most dams are old and nearly all belong to States, so the Act's value lies in the inspections it compels and the deficiencies it brings to light.
A dam failure is a man made disaster with a natural trigger, usually extreme rain, which climate change makes more frequent; an ageing dam designed for an older rainfall regime is the weak point.
Where a dam stands in one State and is owned or operated by another, the national authority can act as the State organisation, which gives the Act a federal edge.

Prelims: the Act of 2021 in force from 30 December 2021; a specified dam is over 15 m (or 10 to 15 m with criteria); NCDS, NDSA, SCDS and SDSO; India has 6,628 specified dams, third in the world; DHARMA is the dam database; DRIP is World Bank assisted.
Mains: India's dams are old, State owned and exposed to a changing rainfall regime; how far does the Dam Safety Act meet the risk?

Show the questions

Mains 2019 GS3: Vulnerability is an essential element for defining disaster impacts and its threat to people. How and in what ways can vulnerability to disasters be characterized? Discuss different types of vulnerability with reference to disasters.
Mains 2026 GS3: Discuss how the contradiction between 'rapid infrastructure development' and 'disaster-risk reduction' in ecologically-sensitive areas of India can be managed, with suitable examples.

Sources

PIB, 15 May 2026, “Dam Rehabilitation: Strengthening Infrastructure through Policy and Technology”

Settled facts (dates of Acts, constitutional provisions, standing definitions) are from standard references.

Ammonia and industrial transient operations · on Chemicals, noise, light and soil pollution
Ammonia is a colourless, pungent gas used in fertilisers, dyes and refrigeration.