Exploring Environmental Impacts and Ecosystem Changes Caused by Dams

Dams help generate hydroelectricity, store excess rainwater, and prevent flooding, but they simultaneously change riverine ecosystems and alter environments downstream.

Reservoirs submerge vast forest tracts and block migratory aquatic species like salmon from moving upstream to spawn, disrupting the food chain for other animals.

Dams prevent fertile silt from reaching river deltas and can trigger seismic activity, such as the 6.3 magnitude earthquake caused by the Koyna Dam in Maharashtra in 1967.