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NEIGHBOURS: FLOODS
Made In China
Satellite pictures suggest that the floods which
ravaged Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh last year may
have been triggered by the Chinese
By Shishir Gupta
The relationship
between India and China have a tendency to toggle between good, bad and
ugly. While economic issues have overshadowed many problems, the nuclear
threat and missile proliferation have led to serious concerns in the past.
And, lest one forgets, it was the border dispute that sparked off hostilities
between the two Asian giants. Now a new flash point has emerged in the
bilateral relationship. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
has concrete evidence that the flash floods which ravaged large tracts
in the border states of Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh last year
were caused by the Chinese.
A detailed study carried out by ISRO scientists
says the release of excess water accumulated in man-made and natural water
bodies in the Sutlej and the Siang river basins in Tibet had led to the
flooding. The Sutlej is part of the Indus river system and enters India
from Tibet in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. The Siang is part
of the mighty Brahmaputra system and enters India in the Upper Siang district
of Arunachal Pradesh.
At 1.30 a.m. on August 1, 2000 a 50-ft high
wall of water tore into the mountain gorges of Kinnaur, Shimla and Mandi
districts in Himachal Pradesh washing away everything that came in its
path. More than 100 persons lost their lives, 120 km of the strategic
Old Hindustan-Tibet highway was washed away and 98 bridges of various
sizes and shapes were completely destroyed. Official estimate of the loss:
Rs 200 crore.
| Making Of A Flood |
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| 1.
Heavy rains trigger landslides in Siang and Sutlej basins in Tibet. |
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| 2.
The blocked tributaries form numerous lakes in the basins. |
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| 3.
Chinese breach the lakes to allow natural river flow. |
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| 4.
The sudden release of water causes floods in India. |
This was a replay of the flash floods in Arunachal
Pradesh about two months earlier on June 11. Only this time the river
that ravaged the Indian countryside was the Siang, which is known as the
Tsangpo in China and the Brahmaputra in Assam. That day, the Siang rose
by an unprecedented 100-120 ft in the border state and devastated four
districts of Arunachal Pradesh. More than 26 persons lost their lives
while three strategic bridges were swept away by the raging river waters.
Official estimate of the loss: Rs 139.50 crore.
The flash floods in the two states were initially
dismissed by the Centre as freak natural phenomena caused by cloudbursts.
In fact, they would have become nondescript files in the National Disaster
Management Cell of the Ministry of Agriculture but for ISRO's stunning
revelation that the flash floods had been caused by the release of excess
water that had collected in water bodies in the Sutlej and the Siang river
basins in Tibet. However, China has denied this and says that there were
no floods or incessant rain in Tibet at the time. The Chinese have attributed
the floods to "natural" causes on the Indian side. But according
to the Kinnaur district authorities, some bridges in China were also destroyed
by the gushing Sutlej waters.
This perhaps is not backed by facts. When the
disasters struck, it was also not raining in either Himachal Pradesh or
Arunachal Pradesh. This is precisely why there were no flood warnings
issued by the two state governments at the time.
On the other hand, ISRO's charges are based
on a careful examination of satellite images of the river basins in Tibet.
ISRO scientists pored over multi-date satellite data to investigate the
causes of the flash floods. Around 30 satellite pictures of the Siang
river basin in eastern Tibet region and 25 images of the western part
of Tibet were analysed. The ISRO findings were later submitted to the
Ministry of External Affairs. Also, during a review of the flood forecasting
projects under the Jai Vigyan National Mission last month, an ISRO representative
apprised Union Science and Technology Minister Murli Manohar Joshi of
the findings.
While the satellite images remain classified,
officials of the Ministry of Water Resources indicate that these pictures
show the presence of huge water bodies or lakes upstream in Sutlej and
Siang river basins before the flash floods took place. However, these
lakes disappeared soon after the disaster struck Indian territory. This
probably means that the Chinese had breached these water bodies as a result
of which lakhs of cusecs of water were released into the Sutlej and Siang
river basins.
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