Flood management and anti-erosion schemes are formulated and implemented by the concerned State Governments as per their respective priorities. The Union Government supplements the efforts of the States by providing technical guidance and promotional financial assistance for management of flood management in critical areas through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, namely, the “Flood Management and Border Areas Programme” (FMBAP), which provides central assistance to States for works related to flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, anti-sea erosion, etc. Since the inception of the programme up to March 2026, central assistance amounting to Rs.2,536.96 crore has been provided under FMBAP for 263 flood management projects in the North Eastern States, including Sikkim.
The Central Water Commission (CWC) issues short-range flood forecasts with a lead time of up to 24 hours to the concerned State Governments at identified locations. CWC also issues inflow forecasts for identified reservoirs to facilitate proper reservoir regulation. Presently, flood forecasts are issued by CWC at 360 stations (159 Inflow Forecast Stations and 201 Level Forecast Stations) in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure. This includes 53 stations (15 Inflow Forecast Stations and 38 Level Forecast Stations) in the North-Eastern region. These forecasts are disseminated through the dedicated website, namely, https://ffs.india-water.gov.in. In order to provide more lead time to local authorities to plan evacuation of people and take other remedial measures, CWC has developed a basin-wise flood forecasting model based on rainfall-runoff mathematical modelling for a 7-days advance flood forecast advisory for all forecasting stations. The advisories are disseminated through the dedicated website, namely, https://aff.india-water.gov.in. CWC’s flood forecasting services are also integrated with the integrated alert dissemination platform Common Alert Protocol (CAP) issued to the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) of the respective States/ UTs. The flood information is also uploaded to various social media platforms such as Facebook, X, and the Flood Watch India Mobile App, etc.
For effective river basin management and flood forecasting in the North Eastern Region, Hydrological and Meteorological Data are shared by neighbouring countries.
Ministry of Jal Shakti has continuously impressed upon the States the need to adopt Flood Plain Zoning (FPZ) as a non-structural measure of flood management in the country. In order to enable States to undertake scientific assessment of flood plains and their zoning as a non-structural measure of flood mitigation, a technical guideline on Flood Plain Zoning has been prepared and circulated to the States/UTs in August, 2025 by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
The Brahmaputra Board has prepared 52 Master Plans for the North-Eastern States, which include short, medium, and long term measures, both structural and non-structural, for flood management.
The State Governments undertake assessment of damages caused by the 12 notified natural calamities, including rain and floods, and provide relief assistance from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) already placed at their disposal, as per the approved norms of the Government of India. Additional financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) is provided, as per the prescribed procedure, in case of disasters of a ‘severe nature’, which includes an assessment by an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT).
The information was provided by THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI SHRI RAJ BHUSHAN CHOUDHARY in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
