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DAM-L LS: Indian Army Suspects China Dam Burst (fwd)



subject: LS: Indian Army Suspects China Dam Burst

The Rediff Special/ Nitin Gogoi

Army suspects Chinese hand behind flash floods in N-E

The army has asked the defence ministry to take up with Beijing the 
matter of recent
flash floods in three districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

                  Army authorities from the eastern command headquartered
in Calcutta, suspect that the floods were triggered off after a dam
burst on the Chinese side in early June.

                  Army officials suspect that the Peoples Liberation Army
of China may have blasted the dam to experiment the impact of flash
floods in the sensitive north-east and to study the damage such a flood may
cause on the Indian side.

                  The potential to cause damage, officials concede, is
enormous as the flash floods, besides destroying property, crops and leaving
over 26 people dead, washed away three strategic bridges -- Sagarm,
Dite Dimea and Nubo -- all considered crucial from the defence point
of view.

                  The floods mainly affected the four districts of East
Siang, Upper Siang, West Siang and Dibang valley in Arunachal Pradesh.

                  The flash floods in Arunachal Pradesh have left experts
clueless, with puzzled ministry of water resources officials not
ruling out the defence implications, even while trying to figure out the cause
of the floods, which are considered unprecedented.

                  Although news of floods in distant north-east may not
be hot for Delhi, the flash floods that hit the border state of Arunachal
Pradesh in June has made officials at the Central Water Commission and the MWR
sit up and take notice.

                  As officials pore over the technical data, a new
dimension that the Chinese Army in Tibet, as part of an experiment, may have
deliberately blasted the dam has been added to the already hazy picture.

                  According to Nabam Rebia, member of Parliament from
Arunachal Pradesh, puzzled by the nature of the floods and the
equally mysterious response of China, the Government of India's remote
sensing agency hired a Canadian satellite to take a close look at the scene of
the breach. Top officials who confirmed this said, "All the technical
details and pictures from the area are with us now and confirm that a 
breach had
taken place on a dam on the river Tsangpo leading to flash floods in the
north-eastern region."

                  According to the official, who had seen the technical
data, the flash flood occurred because of a breach in a dam located in an
area pinpointed as latitude 30.15 degrees north by 94.50 degrees east,
which falls in China controlled Tibet.

                  The Tsangpo river runs along 1625 km in Tibet, 918 km
in India and 363 km in Bangladesh before falling into sea. In the
north-east, the river is known as Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and Brahmaputra in
Assam.

                  The theory that the breach may have serious defence
implications has gained credence because of several inexplicable events.
Sources claimed that the first unusual aspect was that the water level of Siang
in Arunachal Pradesh recorded an increase of 30 metres within a span of less
than 10 hours on June 11, a phenomenon considered unprecedented in the
region.

                  Then came the response of Government of China to the
floods. Interestingly, news reports from foreign news agencies quoted unnamed
officials as confirming that a breach had indeed occurred in a
natural dam on the river in Tibet. But when the MEA contacted China, it was
conveyed that there had been no floods on the Chinese side of the Brahmaputra
and instead the occurrence of floods on the Indian side was attributed
to natural causes, Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Panja
revealed in Parliament last week.

                  The next unusual event was when a German construction
company, Lurgi, that specialises in dam construction claimed on its
website that it had built a pendulum dam in the area under adverse conditions.
However, the item was mysteriously withdrawn soon after the floods occurred
and all attempts made by the MWR were stonewalled by the company,
sources disclosed.

                  If the German company's claim that it had built the dam
was true, then it contradicts the version of a Chinese engineer who was
quoted as having said that the dam was natural, and was created by soil
erosion. The same engineer further stated that the dam was breached
following rain in the area  and despite massive attempts to canalise 
the river it
could not be saved.

                  Sources said they have to take all this very seriously
because it is also the area where the Siang hydel project is coming up. The
impact of such a flood on the multi-purpose project has to be now factored in.
In all, the Centre proposes to spend about Rs 250 billion on three
multi-purpose projects in the area, official said.

                  Sources said a team of officials drawn from various
fields, including the CWC, was going through the entire sequence of events
and the technical data now in their possession to figure out what exactly
happened.

                  Meanwhile, the Arunachal Pradesh government has drawn
the attention of the central government to the sudden floods that have
left the state devastated, urging it to take up the issue with China.