The Gauhati High Court has stepped into the recent flood crisis in Upper Assam, admitting a public interest litigation that labels the devastation a man-made catastrophe driven by unchecked illegal mining, riverbed dredging, and uncoordinated dam water releases. Pointing to the widespread damage across Sivasagar, Charaideo, and surrounding areas, a division bench headed by the Chief Justice issued notices to the state governments of Assam and Nagaland along with sixteen administrative departments. The court noted that the issues raised in the petition were genuine and questioned why the region continues to suffer massive losses year after year, demanding a full accounting of how public funds allocated for flood protection and embankment repairs have actually been used.
The plea, filed by former Leader of the Opposition and Nazira MLA Debabrata Saikia, takes aim at administrative negligence behind the deluge that claimed over eighty lives and uprooted lakhs of people. It argues that the flooding along the Dikhow river basin was entirely avoidable, having been worsened by years of unscientific open-cast coal mining across the border hills of Nagaland’s Mon, Mokokchung, and Wokha districts, alongside illegal extraction of sand, gravel, and stone from the Dikhow riverbed in Assam. The plea explains that stripping away hillsides, forest cover, and natural riverbed barriers destroyed the river's ability to regulate its flow, sending heavy silt crashing downstream and turning regular monsoon rains into violent flash floods.
The petition details a long history of official inaction and ignored court orders spanning nearly eight years. Saikia had first approached the High Court back in 2019 over rampant illegal extraction along the interstate border, prompting the court to order a crackdown and direct the creation of a specialized Mines and Minerals Task Force Battalion. Despite subsequent contempt petitions and a fresh directive in November 2022 ordering the state to get the task force on the ground, the unit was never actually set up. The plea also pointed to a January 2022 report from Assam’s own Water Resources Department, which had explicitly warned that ongoing illegal excavation along the border would destabilize the riverbed, risk altering its course, and lead to serious ecological disasters downstream.
Adding to the problem of illegal mining is the controversial management of upstream dam reservoirs. The PIL calls for a close look into how the Doyang Hydro Electric Project in Nagaland managed its water releases, raising questions over whether sudden, unannounced discharges overwhelmed downstream riverbanks in Assam. Without a real-time, synchronized early warning system between authorities in Assam and Nagaland, downstream villages were left completely exposed, giving families virtually no time to evacuate before floodwaters swept through their homes.
To prevent similar disasters in the future, the petition seeks strict legal, financial, and structural steps. It demands an outright ban on illegal riverbed mining along the Dikhow and its tributaries, as well as the immediate deployment of the long-delayed task force. It also pushes for an independent monitoring committee led by a retired judge to probe the causes of the flood, audit the ₹25 crore spent on embankment work, and track the enforcement of court directives. Alongside filing FIRs against mining syndicates and complicit officials, the petitioner has asked for environmental damage penalties and compensation of at least ₹10 lakh per affected family, in line with relief measures implemented in other flood-hit states.
The High Court’s intervention puts commercial exploitation and interstate river management right at the center of the flood debate in the Northeast. With both Assam and Nagaland now required to submit detailed replies, the case offers a crucial opportunity to dismantle illegal mining networks, build effective interstate communication channels, and protect fragile river systems before the next monsoon causes another cycle of destruction.