Multiple earthquakes hit Tibet. Photo Courtesy: Pixabay
At least 32 people died and 38 others were injured after several earthquakes, with the strongest tremor measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale, hit a remote region in Tibet on Tuesday, Chinese media reports said.
The earthquakes jolted Dingri County in the city of Xigaze, Xinhua reported.
The tremors were felt in at least three Indian cities — Patna, Guwahati and Kolkata.
As per National Centre for Seismology (NCS) data released on X, the earthquake hit Tibet around 6.35 am.
The epicentre of the quake is located in Xizang, near the Nepal-Tibet border.
NCS posted on X: “EQ of M: 7.1, On: 07/01/2025 06:35:18 IST, Lat: 28.86 N, Long: 87.51 E, Depth: 10 Km, Location: Xizang.”
NCS data showed several low-intensity earthquakes hit the same region after the strongest one, which measured 7.1 on the Richter Scale.
The subsequent earthquakes measured between 4.7 to 5.0 on the Richter Scale.
In Tibet, houses collapsed in Tonglai Village, reported Xinhua news agency.
The county head of Dingri town told Xinhua that the earthquake was distinctly felt in the region.
According to reports, tremors were also felt in Nepal and parts of Bangladesh.
A part of the Brahmaputra river, called Yarlung Tsangpo in China. Photo courtesy: Pinterest/Siku Vodka
China, a country whose penchant for mega-structures is well-known, has reportedly approved the construction of the world’s largest dam — stated to be the planet’s biggest infrastructure project costing USD 137 billion — on the river Brahmaputra in Tibet, close to the Sino-Indian border. The news has raised concerns in the riparian nations of India and Bangladesh, according to the Press Trust of India.
This Brahmaputra river dam project, if executed, is likely to surpass the famed Three Gorges Dam on the river Yangtze in China.
The Brahmaputra, one of the most important river systems in South-East Asia, originates in the Tibetan plateau and flows through several geographical regions. The waters of the Brahmaputra sustain millions of people and large swathes of biodiversity zones, such as the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, northeastern India.
Once the Brahmaputra enters Bangladesh, its name changes to Jamuna, and then it eventually meets the ocean at the Bay of Bengal.
In this context, the news of the Chinese dam project on the Brahmaputra is bound to raise concerns. Any unilateral restriction on the Brahmaputra waters by China will severely affect life in India and Bangladesh.
The Chinese government has approved the construction of a hydropower project in the lower reaches of the “Yarlung Zangbo (or Tsangpo)” river, the Tibetan name for the Brahmaputra, according to an official statement quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency on Wednesday.
The dam is to be built at a huge gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra river makes a huge U-turn to flow into Arunachal Pradesh and then to Bangladesh.
Ship lift at the famed Three Gorges Dam, on the Yangtze river in China. Photo courtesy: yangtze-river-cruises.com
The total investment in the dam could exceed 1 trillion yuan (USD 137 billion), which would dwarf any other single infrastructure project on the planet, including China’s own Three Gorges Dam, regarded as the largest in the world, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.
China has already operationalised the USD 1.5 billion Zam Hydropower Station, the largest in Tibet, in 2015.
The Brahmaputra dam was part of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and ‘National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives through the Year 2035’ adopted by Plenum, a key policy body of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2020.
Water release by the world-famous Three Gorges Dam in China. Photo courtesy: yangtze-river-cruises.com
Concerns arose in India as the size and scale of the dam, besides empowering China to control the water flow, could also enable Beijing to release large amounts of water, flooding border areas in times of hostilities.
India, too, is building a dam over the Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh. India and China established the Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) in 2006 to discuss various issues related to trans-border rivers. Under this ELM, China provides India with hydrological information on the Brahmaputra river and Sutlej river during the flood seasons.
Data sharing of trans-border rivers figured in the talks between the Indian and Chinese Special Representatives (SRs) for border question, NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, held in Beijing on December 18.
The SRs “provided positive directions for cross-border cooperation and exchanges”, including data sharing on trans-border rivers, said a statement by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
The Brahmaputra dam project presents enormous engineering challenges, as the project site is located along a tectonic plate boundary where earthquakes occur. The Tibetan plateau, regarded as the roof of the world, frequently experiences earthquakes as it is located over the tectonic plates.
The official Chinese statement on Wednesday sought to allay concerns about earthquakes, saying that the hydropower project was safe and prioritised ecological protection.
Through extensive geological explorations and technical advancements, a solid foundation had been laid for the science-based, secure, and high-quality development of the project, it said.
The Brahmaputra flows across the Tibetan Plateau, carving out the deepest canyon on Earth and covering a staggering vertical difference of 25,154 feet before reaching India, said the South China Morning Post report.
The dam will be built in one of the rainiest parts of mainland China, bringing bountiful flows of water.
According to a 2023 report, the hydropower station is expected to generate more than 300 billion kWh of electricity each year, enough to meet the annual needs of over 300 million people.
In 2020, Yan Zhiyong, then chairman of the state-owned Power Construction Corporation of China, was quoted in the media as saying the location on the Yarlung Tsangpo was one of the most hydropower-rich areas in the world.
“The lower reaches area features a vertical drop of 2,000 metres over a 50km distance, representing nearly 70 million kilowatts of resources that could be developed — that is more than three Three Gorges Dams with an installed capacity of 22.5 million kilowatts,” the Post quoted him as saying.
To harness the hydropower potential of the Brahmaputra, four to six 20km-long tunnels must be drilled through the Namcha Barwa mountain to divert half of the river’s flow at about 2,000 cubic metres per second, according to the report.
Yan said that the hydropower exploitation of the Yarlung Tsangpo river downstream was more than a hydropower project; it was also meaningful for the environment, national security, living standards, energy and international cooperation.
“It is a project for [Chinese] national security, including water resources and domestic security,” he said, noting that the project would also smoothen cooperation with South Asia.
The hydropower station could generate income of 20 billion yuan (USD 3 billion) annually for the Tibet Autonomous Region, he said.
An official statement on Wednesday defended the Brahmaputra dam project, saying it would play a positive role in accelerating the country’s efforts to create a new development pattern and pursue high-quality development.
It was also of great importance to advancing the Chinese strategy for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality and to coping with global climate change, it said.
The hydropower project, as China claimed, was a green project aimed at promoting low-carbon development. By harnessing the abundant hydropower resources of the Yarlung Tsangpo river, the project would also spur the development of solar and wind energy resources in surrounding areas, thus creating a clean energy base, featuring a complementary mix of hydro, wind and solar power, it said.
China has mentioned it’s going to discuss solely with the representatives of the Dalai Lama and never the officers of the Tibetan government-in-exile based mostly in India. The Chinese facet has mentioned it’s prepared to talk about the “private future” of the Dalai Lama, now 88, but not Tibetan autonomy. This seems to be a touch that he may have the opportunity to return to Tibet after 65 years.
His Holiness Dalai Lama at his residence in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, northern India, in February 2024. Photo courtesy: Instagram/dalailama (photograph by Ven Tenzin Jamphel)
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin was reacting yesterday to experiences of the back-channel talks between the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Chinese authorities. He mentioned that China regarded the Tibetan government-in-exile based mostly in Dharamshala as a “separatist” bloc.
“The so-called ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’ is a wholly organised separatist political group with a political platform and an agenda for ‘Tibetan independence’. It is an unlawful organisation that violates China’s Constitution and legal guidelines. No nation on this planet recognises it,” Wang mentioned.
China calls Tibet as “Xizang”.
On Thursday, the “Sikyong” or the political head of Tibet’s government-in-exile, Penpa Tsering, instructed a visiting group of journalists in Dharamshala, India, “We have had back-channel (engagement) since final 12 months. But we’ve no fast expectations from it. It has to be a long-term (one).”
Tibetan protest towards China in April 2024. Photo courtesy: Instagram/voice.of.tibet
Stating that the talks have been “very casual,” the pinnacle of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) mentioned, “I’ve my interlocutor who offers with folks in Beijing. Then, there are different parts additionally attempting to attain out to us.”
Elaborating on China’s stand, Wang mentioned that the Chinese authorities had two primary rules when it got here to contact and talks.
“First, we’d solely have contact and talks with the private consultant of the 14th Dalai Lama, not the so-called ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’ or the ‘Central Tibetan Administration.’ The Chinese authorities is not going to be coping with it,” he mentioned.
“Second, any contact or talks will solely be concerning the private way forward for the 14th Dalai Lama himself, or to the utmost extent, a handful of individuals shut to him, not the so-called ‘excessive diploma of autonomy for Tibet,’” Wang added.
“We hope the 14th Dalai Lama can have a proper understanding of the central authorities’s coverage, significantly mirror on and totally right its political propositions and actions, hand over any exercise aimed to disrupt the social order in Xizang, and return to the correct path. Only then can contact and talks be thought of subsequent,” mentioned the Beijing spokesperson.
The current His Holiness Dalai Lama had fled Tibet in 1959, when he was 23 years outdated, to keep away from being captured by the Chinese army in Lhasa. His journey to India — crossing Himalayan terrain on foot with a small band of loyal followers — turned the stuff of legend.
During the many years in exile, the non secular chief of all Buddhists on this planet has all the time known as for autonomy for Tibet, and Tibetans protests towards China have continued via the years.
From 2002 to 2010, the Dalai Lama’s representatives and the Chinese authorities held 9 rounds of dialogue that didn’t produce any concrete final result.
The Tibetan facet pitched for real autonomy for the Tibetan folks according to the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle-Way Policy’. No formal talks with the Chinese have been held since 2010.
In Dharamshala, one other senior Tibetan chief on Thursday indicated that the back-channel talks have been aimed at reviving the general dialogue course of, because it was the one method out to resolve the Tibetan subject.
