DHARAMSHALA, March 2: Tibet support groups in India have announced plans to intensify Tibet awareness campaigns in the northeastern states of India with an aim to “unite the people of the region to form a strong pressure group against the Chinese ‘domination’ of Tibet”.
The New Delhi-based Core Group for Tibetan Cause will be organising a conference titled ‘Tibet and Himalayan Environment and Ecology’ in Guwahati the capital of Assam on March 26. The conference is most likely to discuss the environmental, demographic and military changes on the Tibetan plateau which directly affects the entire northeast region of India.
The announcement of the conference as well as a national-level meeting of the forum on the ongoing critical situation inside Tibet, comes days after an alarming drop in the water level of Brahmaputra river was reported.
The 2,900 kilometre Brahmaputra originates from eastern Tibet where it is known as the Yarlung Tsangpo, and enters India in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, where it is called the Siang.
“It was shocking to find the Siang river drying up and patches of sand visible on its bed in a very large stretch close to Pasighat town,” Tako Dabi, advisor to the state chief minister told the AFP while estimating that the flow was about 40 per cent of its normal strength.
“We suspect the sudden drying up of the Siang could be a result of China either diverting the river water on their side or due to some artificial blockades somewhere in the upper reaches,” said Dabi.
“Locals are worried as the river is a source of livelihood,” he added.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, SM Krishna, India’s External Affairs Minister assured that Indian satellite pictures showed no activity of storage facilities being worked out by the Chinese authorities. He said the Indian ambassador in Beijing will be asked to pursue the matter.
China had earlier toyed with the idea of diverting water from the Yarlung to its parched northern regions. Last October, the Chinese government acknowledged that it had dropped its diversification project.
However, China is believed to be building six dams on the Brahmaputra but has clarified that these are run-of-the-river projects.
R K Khrimey, former Arunachal Pradesh MP and Core Group for Tibetan Cause’s northeast convener told reporters that due to China’s geographical location, it imposes a “looming danger” on India.
“The diversion plans for the Yarlung river by China is going to have devastating impact on India,” Khrimey cautioned. “Environmentalists have described the Chinese plans on the upper reaches of Brahmaputra in Tibet as the cause of declining water level of Siang river.”
Khrimey also urged the people of the northeast to join the movement against Chinese rule in Tibet.
Calling Arunachal Pradesh an integral part of India, the Tibet support group urged the Indian government to be more aggressive on Chinese claims over the Indian state.
