डॉल्फ़िन ज़िंदा पार्टी
A coal plant sits on the left bank of the Chambal, two kilometres from Kota. It fails its own pollution limits, has outlived its own retirement plan, and was fined by the National Green Tribunal for polluting the river. Downstream live the Gangetic dolphin, the gharial, and more than a million people. We are the party for all of them.
चंबल बचाओ, कोटा बचाओ। डॉल्फ़िन बचेगी, तो हम बचेंगे।
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State-owned, coal-fired, and drinking from the same river that carries Kota's dolphins and gharials downstream.
The plant is run by the Rajasthan state utility (RRUVNL). It stands in Sakatpura on the left bank of the Chambal, about 2 km from the city. It has seven units with a combined 1,240 MW[1].
The Centre for Science and Environment found that six of the seven units fail particulate matter norms, and every unit fails the sulphur dioxide and water norms set by the environment ministry. Units 1 to 4 were fitted with dust filters (ESPs) built for 150 mg/Nm³ of particulate output, while the legal limit is 100. Those units have no plan for flue gas desulphurisation[1].
Cooling Units 1 to 5 takes an open-cycle flow of 1,180 cusecs from the Kota Barrage, and the warmed water goes back to the river. In 2021 the effluent and sewage treatment plants existed only as submitted plans[1].
The city breathes it too. Kota is a non-attainment city under the National Clean Air Programme, which means its air fails national standards[2]. A 2024 study of 47 indoor dust samples from Kota homes concluded that coal burning at the plant is the major source of the heavy metal burden in the study area[5].
CSE assessment, reported June 2021
Red means the unit fails the norm. CSE did not say which unit meets the PM limit, so it is shown here as Unit 7, the newest. All seven fail SO₂ and water.
Satellite views of the plant and the land around it. Anyone can open these maps and check the same places for themselves. Tap a photo to see it full size.
Imagery: ISRO Bhuvan and public satellite maps.
The oldest units were scheduled to retire years ago. Each deadline slipped, and the river paid for it.
The environment ministry sets new limits on PM, SO₂, NOx, mercury and water use for coal plants.
After talks with the CEA and CPCB, the plant is slated for retirement. The CEA's National Electricity Plan lists Units 1 to 5 for closure[1].
This was the date to phase out Units 1 to 4, and the CPCB's deadline for their ESP upgrades.
The ministry extends compliance deadlines by three to four years. Old plants can run to 2025 on a retirement plan, and defaulters can keep running by paying 20 paise a unit. CSE calls it a license to pollute[1].
Units 1 and 2 (110 MW each) were due to shut on 30 June. Two days before, the state government said the plant would keep running to protect jobs[1].
The cooling system was to meet specific water consumption limits by this date.
Acting on a PIL by environmentalist Babulal Jaju, the NGT's Bhopal bench orders the plant to stop polluted water entering the Chambal immediately, and to build cooling towers and treatment facilities[3].
This was the deadline for the cooling towers, the treatment works, and sewer connections for every house in Kota. The deadline has passed. No compliance status has been published, and we are demanding one.
Below Kota, the Chambal flows through the National Chambal Sanctuary, about 425 km of protected river[3]. The NGT itself noted that pollution, illegal mining and encroachment threaten human life, the gharial and the Gangetic dolphin.
India's national aquatic animal. It is nearly blind and finds food and mates by echolocation, so it depends on clean, flowing, quiet water. Heavy metals build up in the fish it eats. A river with healthy dolphins is a river that is safe for people.
The Chambal is one of the gharial's last strongholds, and the sanctuary was created to protect it[3]. It nests on sandbanks, the same sandbanks threatened by illegal mining and polluted flows.
We are students, families and plant workers. We breathe air that fails national standards and live in homes where the dust carries metals traced to coal burning[5]. Researchers have studied heavy metal pollution around the plant since at least 2018[4].
Each demand rests on a rule, plan or court order that already exists. We are asking for those commitments to be enforced.
RRUVNL and the Rajasthan pollution board must publish whether the plant has met the NGT's orders on cooling towers, treatment and discharge, with dates and evidence.
The CEA's own National Electricity Plan scheduled these units for retirement. The oldest units fail the norms and have no plan to meet them.
A 20-paise penalty is not compliance. Every unit that runs must meet the 2015 norms, or it must stop.
Stop every polluted flow, as the NGT ordered. Switch to closed-cycle cooling towers, and commission the effluent and sewage plants that have existed only on paper.
Run independent, public testing of air, soil, river water, fish and indoor dust in Sakatpura and the downwind wards, then fund health screening based on the results.
Count dolphins and gharials every year and publish the results. Enforce the 2016 and 2020 sand mining guidelines on the Chambal, as the NGT directed.
Every worker at a retiring unit gets redeployment, retraining for clean energy and ash-remediation jobs, or full protection of their pay. Jobs must never again be the reason a dirty unit keeps running.
The plant's workers are not our opponents. In 2021 the retirement was cancelled to save their jobs. Our answer is a plan that protects their jobs and the river at the same time.
Plant workers and union members are welcome in the DJP, and their voices shape demand seven.
A movement grows one person at a time. Take the pledge, share your card, and bring one more person with you.
Fill in the form to make your DJP card, then share it on WhatsApp or anywhere else.
Send an RTI application to RRUVNL and the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board asking for the plant's compliance with the NGT order of 10 October 2025. Use the RTI text below.
Raise the seven demands at your ward meeting, your RWA, your coaching centre, your college.
Join a Sunday walk along the Chambal ghats. Photograph outfalls, foam, ash and dead fish, and note the date and place.
This movement runs on public records. Check every source yourself.