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A series of earthquakes in Tibet triggered landslides which resulted in the blackening of Bhramaputra and not the construction activity carried out by China as alleged by a BJD MP in Lok Sabha, reported The Indian Express.
The debris from the landslides accumulated in the river, causing partial blockages, leading to the formation of three natural dams on 6 km of the river across a 12-km stretch in China.
“Three natural dams have formed one behind the other. While the dams are significantly smaller than the Yigong dam, which led to catastrophic flooding of the Brahmaputra in 2000, it is too early to rule out the possibility of these three dams merging and becoming larger. Blockage of river flow by debris is unpredictable as the area is extremely unstable and possibly still disposing of rocks,” the report said.
This is a concern for India as there is a possibility that these dams may merge and eventually may cause floods.
The images captured by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite on December 10 captured the landslide in progress, as well as blockages, provide enough evidence to conclude that the ongoing dam construction and tunnelling work upstream the Yarlung-Tsangpo in China were responsible for the darkening of Brahmaputra waters.
“There is no foul play involved. However, landslide-induced turbidity usually subsides within a week. So we are examining the situation through satellite images as the affected area is not within our territory. We will get a clearer picture soon,” Pradeep Kumar, member (river management), Central Water Commission, told the paper.
The quake-induced landslides on the river continued for over three weeks, which probably explains the prolonged turbidity, said a preliminary study by two researchers from Bengaluru-based National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE).
On Tuesday, Bhartruhari Mahtab, BJD MP from Cuttack, had raised this issue in the lower house of the Parliament.
“The contamination may have been caused due to the construction of a dam by China on a tributary of the Brahmaputra. We are a riparian country and China is obliged to share all hydro-meteorological data with us. If it does not do so, we should raise the matter at all international fora,” Mahtab told the paper.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on December 13 had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi regarding the same issue. The state had also sent the samples of Brahmaputra river's water to the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad and Indian Institute Technology-Guwahati for testing. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had also informed authorities in China that her ministry has started an exhaustive study.
Earlier, Union Minister of State for Water Resources Arjun Ram Meghwal had said that the preliminary findings indicated that the path of the river was temporarily obstructed after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Tibet on November 17.
Over the next seven days, Tibet experienced six 4-plus magnitude earthquakes within a radius of 40 km of the Gyala Peri peak, which was the epicentre of the first earthquake.
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