China is constructing a brand new dam in Tibet on a tributary of the Ganga, near the tri-junction of its borders with India and Nepal, that might be used to manipulate the waft of water downstream, new satellite tv for pc imagery has revealed.
The improvement comes withinside the wake of China unveiling plans to construct a “splendid” dam near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Tibet at the decrease reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river, which flows into Arunachal Pradesh because the Siang after which to Assam because the Brahmaputra. It additionally comes at a time while satellite tv for pc imagery has proven that China has drastically ramped up advent of army and twin use infrastructure and villages withinside the jap and western sectors of the LAC.
Satellite pictures tweeted on Thursday through Damien Symon, a geospatial intelligence researcher on the Intel Lab, confirmed earth improvement and dam production hobby achieved through the Chinese aspect on Mabja Zangbo river in Burang county of Tibet when you consider that May 2021. The pictures depict the obstruction of the river’s path, the formation of a reservoir, and an embankment-kind dam.
The Mabja Zangbo river flows into the Ghaghara or Karnali river in Nepal earlier than subsequently becoming a member of the Ganga in India.
The dam is placed only some kilometres north of the tri-junction of China’s border with India and Nepal, Symon stated.
According to the present day satellite tv for pc pictures, the dam seems to be 350 metres to four hundred metres long, Symon stated. “The shape is presently in improvement, so the motive is unknown,” he stated.
“It seems to be an embankment dam,” he added. “An airport is being built close by as well.”
People acquainted with the problem stated the dam, placed on the strategic tri-junction of China’s borders with India and Nepal and contrary the Kalapani area of Uttarakhand state, can be used to divert or limition the waters of the Mabja Zangbo river.
The dam can also be used to save water, whose launch ought to create floods downstream, the humans stated.
In current years, China has constructed numerous smaller dams at the Yarlung Zangbo river, triggering comparable worries associated with the Brahmaputra withinside the North-East. Chinese state-run media had pronounced in November 2020 that the deliberate splendid dam at the Yarlung Zangbo might be extra than a hydropower challenge as it might additionally be significant for countrywide safety.
Since a army face-off among Indian and Chinese troops started out in Ladakh area of the LAC in May 2020, severa satellite tv for pc pictures and reviews have certain the advent of army and twin-use infrastructure, such as airports, missile and air defence centers and munitions dumps. China has additionally constructed dozens of villages in hitherto uninhabited stretches of the LAC, a pass that specialists say is aimed toward buttressing its declare to territory alongside the disputed boundary.
The Indian management has maintained that the general courting with China can not be normalised with out peace and tranquillity at the LAC, while the Chinese aspect has stated the 2 nations need to take ahead their ties whilst placing the border problem in its “suitable place”.
Sameer Patil, senior fellow on the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), defined the brand new dam as a clean try through China to reinforce its current infrastructure with twin use benefits, because it had achieved formerly at the Yarlung Zangbo river. “Given the delicate ecology of Tibet, that is genuinely going to have implications for India’s water safety and could in addition exacerbate the already strained bilateral relations,” he stated.
