NEW DELHI: The govt is carefully monitoring all developments relating to the Brahmaputra river, including plans by China to develop hydropower projects, and taking necessary measures to protect the interests of the country, the environment ministry informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Taking note of China’s announcement of a mega dam project approved on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo (upper reaches of the Brahmaputra) river in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the ministry said various issues relating to trans-border rivers were discussed with China under the ambit of an institutionalized expert level mechanism which was established in 2006, as well as through diplomatic channels.
China has planned to build a huge dam with capacity of 60 gigawatts (GW) of hydroelectric project at an estimated cost of $137 billion on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, which eventually becomes the Brahmaputra as it flows into Arunachal Pradesh.
“As a lower riparian state with considerable established user rights to the waters of the trans-border rivers, govt has consistently conveyed its views and concerns to the Chinese authorities, and has urged them to ensure that the interests of downstream states are not harmed by any activities in upstream areas,” said the minister of state for environment, Kirti Vardhan Singh, in his written response to a Parliament Question.
Responding to the question by TMC member Sushmita Dev, he said, “The cumulative impact assessment and carrying capacity studies have also been undertaken on the major tributaries of the Brahamputra river in North-East India, so as to plan effective strategy to mitigate the possible ecological and socio-economic impacts of hydro-electric projects in the river basin.”
Environmentalists and experts have always been opposed to such projects in the ecologically fragile Tibet region, known for its seismic volatility. Reports show that the region recorded over 100 earthquakes of magnitude of at least 3.0 in 2024 alone.
Last month, a senior fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Uttam Sinha, in his opinion piece in
TOI
expressed his concerns over the Chinese decision. “India’s strategic and policy initiatives on the Brahmaputra have to be carefully balanced between pursuing a ‘water dialogue’ with China and the need to study carefully the projections of future trends in water availability, flow patterns, and changes in climatic variables,” he said.
