By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, November 29: A coalition of Tibetan NGOs have got together Sunday to raise awareness about Tibet’s importance for the global climate in the wake of COP21 in Paris.
Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), Student for Free Tibet, India (SFT) in co-ordination with International Tibet Network (ITN) organized a street play in Dharamshala and New Delhi to highlight the issue of Tibet’s climate crisis.
The narrative of the play was through the eyes of a yak named ‘Tashi’, affected by the environmental destructions happening in the Tibetan plateau. Tashi narrated about his nomad family, disrupted by the forceful ‘nomad resettlement’, with whom he grazed the vast grasslands now plundered by the excessive ‘mining in Tibet’. He also reminded about the ‘rivers being diverted’ to cater to the energy and water demands in China. Tashi ended his story by saying, “Tibet’s rivers, Asia’s lifeline” and “Climate justice for Tibet”.
Lobsang Tseten, Program coordinator of SFT, said, “Our main agenda is to raise the urgent climate issues and crisis in Tibet. We are asking the audience gathered here to tell their leaders to hold China accountable for the climate crisis in Tibet.”
Norzin Dolma, Environment Officer of TWA, who is attending the conference in Paris as a part of ‘Tibet Third Pole Team’ said in a press release, “To address its internal water crisis, China is building mega-dams and water diversion projects at an unprecedented rate. These projects will not only disrupt already-overstressed water supplies of billions of people in South and Southeast Asia, but will see the uprooting and displacement of thousands of Tibetans and destruction of the region’s river ecosystems.”
The Tibetan representatives will call on the world leaders to check global warming, and ask China to halt its irresponsible environmental policies in Tibet.
Similar events were also organized by the NGOs in the Indian capital New Delhi. Similar street theater was performed in front of the UN office where people marched for a climate rally for Tibet, joined by over 200 Tibetans.
ITN with its ‘India Week of Climate Action for Tibet’ lobbied embassies of 11 downstream countries namely Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan etc. to form a network to engage with China. They also met with officials of the US Embassy and Australian Consulate.
“In the last five days we have met with political officers of the Embassies of Nepal, United States, Australia, the UN Information officer and with Shri Jairam Ramesh, former Minister of Environment and Forests, to stress the need for a multilateral forum of downstream countries to pressure China for responsible water usage and sharing”, said Dhardon Sharling, Member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. “The highlight of our weeklong advocacy campaign was lobbying all of the 11 downstream nations of Tibet including China”, she said.
“We are calling for a network of downstream Asian countries to multi-laterally engage with China on climate and water-sharing issues,” said Tenzin Jigdel, International Coordinator, ITN.
