Newsbriefs - Green Tibet 1997


Compiled By Tashi Choeden Bidhartsang


China's Explosive design on Yarlung Tsangpo

THE Chinese propose to divert the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) river through nuclear explosion, whereas the North East India and Bangladesh have been suffering from floods year after year and the Brahmaputra Board set up by the government of India in 1981 is still studying how to use the river water for the benefit of the people, the Chinese seems to have evolved"explosive design" on the use of the river.

The news of their project would have completely escaped the world's attention but for the timely coverage given by an American science magazine. The June issue of Scientific American 1996 carried this story, written by its reporter, John Horgan. The article says,"Chinese north west territory, which includes the Gobi Desert, contains almost half of that country's total land mass, but only seven percent of the freshwater. Recently, some Chinese engineers proposed diverting water into this arid area from the mighty Brahmaputra river, which skirts Tibet's southern border before dipping into India, and Bangladesh. Such a feat would be"impossible" with conventional methods, engineers stated at a meeting held last December at the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics in Beijing. But, they added that:"We can certainly accomplish this project" with nuclear explosions.

Most of us at least those who would have been affected, would not have known about the project, but for the American objecting to the Chinese programme of peaceful nuclear explosions.

If the Chinese got away with concessions they asked from Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and if the project is carried through, for the world it will be just another exercise on the use of peaceful nuclear explosions. But for India and Bangladesh it may have disastrous consequences.

Without knowing the details and status of the project, one can think of two consequences. First, the nuclear fallout. Second, reduced availability of water for India and Bangladesh. Both US and USSR used nuclear explosions for various purposes, including oil and gas production, excavation, to move earth and to create underground cavities. Both stopped, it is informed, due partly to increased fallouts andtotal water resources.

It is possible that the Chinese project may still be on the drawing board. But the government of India and Bangladesh cannot ignore its implications on the Brahmaputra river and the lives of millions of people living in the river's catchment area, the environment and beyond.


Tibet Plateau Rising, says Geologists

Chinese geologists say the Tibet plateau is rising and the movement is to blame for an earthquake last February in southwestern Yunnan province that killed 300 people and destroyed an 800 year old town.

The upward movement of Tibetan plateau caused last February's earthquake in the scenic town of Lijiang, the Xinhua News Agency today quoted Xiao Xuchang of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences as saying.

"The uplift of the plateau caused the accumulation of enormous energy in the surrounding layer and the eruption of energy brought about the earthquake,"it quoted Xiao as telling the 30th International Geological Congress in Beijing.

The 800 year old town of Lijiang, on the edge of Tibet's Himalayan plateau, was devastated by the earthquake that measured seven on the Richter scale.

Xiao and another geologist, Li Tingdong, told the congress that the rapid swelling of the plateau, which has risen about 10,000 meters in the past two millions years, was a result of the expansion of terrestrial heat and isostatic adjustment of the plateau's crust, Xinhua said.

Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain which was measured at 8,847 meters in 1954 had risen 37 cm in the past 30 years, Xiao said. The rise of the plateau had greatly affected geological structures and climates in the surrounding areas.

Reuters, Aug 10, 1996


Poachers may make the Tibetan Antelope Extinct

The Tibetan antelope 'Tso' in Tibetan or 'Chiru' which for ages braved the snow and high altitudes of Himalayan mountains may not survive for long as its hair, popularly known as Shahtoosh and is used to manufacture high quality woollen garments, which is its worst enemy, reports PTI.

A recent confidential report of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, India which studied the seasonal migration of these antelopes to India and their killing by poachers and the trade routes for transport of Shahtoosh, said the illegal trade in shahtoosh may well cause the extinction of the animal.

The report termed"Chiru" as one of the most threatened Tibetan antelope and said that maximum damage has been caused by the poachers who have resorted to indiscriminate killing of the animal to collect Shahtoosh.

"There was adequate evidence to conclude that Shahtoosh used by Jammu and Kashmir craftsmen was not collected within the Indian limits" it said and indicated that traders have been using three routes through Ladakh, Chusul, Fukche/Kayul, through UP Himalayas and through Nepal.

The trade in Shahtoosh has been banned in India under Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) and by Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES) to which India is a signatory.

According to the World Wide Fund for nature, India, recent studies conducted on the Tibetan plateau provided evidence of an alarming situation faced by the Tibetan antelope due to indiscriminate poaching.

Feeling aggrieved by a recent order of Jammu and Kashmir High Court releasing 400 kilograms of raw Shahtoosh, worth over one and half crores, confiscated by the authorities from a godown in Delhi belonging to M/s A to Z Handicrafts of Srinagar, the WWF moved the Supreme Court and got a stay on the High Court order.

The survey team, which included traders also, noted that during the survey we did not find any evidence of collection of shed wool of any kind.

M.P Chronicle Bhopal, 10 Jun 1996


China prospects for oil and gas in Northern Tibet

China expects to find "ample oil reserves" in the Changthang region of northern Tibet. According to Zhao Huan, Chief engineer with the Geophysical Bureau of the China National Petroleum and Natural Gas Corporation, existing data suggests that the Changthang Basin will yield"abundant reserves of oil and natural gas." His comments were published in an article in a recent issue of China's Tibet, a government propaganda magazine.

Tibet was a vast ocean 200 million years ago, an area referred to by geologists as the ancient Mediterranean Sea. With the rise of the Himalaya 30 million years ago, the ocean receded to give way to the Changtang Basin, 4,500 meters above sea level.

Two sedimentary layers beneath the basin offer "high prospects for the discovery of oil and gas reserves": an upper level representing deposits 70 million years old and lower level representing deposits 135 million years old. Two regions, the Tuboco lake,Paitan lake area and the Tumain-area are identified as the most likely to contain oil and gas. No estimates of reserves were mentioned.

According to the article, oil and gas exploration began in the 1970s, but only gained momentum when Zhao and a group of geologists were sent to Tibet in 1995. A prospecting team of 2,000 was sent in April of 1996 when the likelihood of significant finds became evident. The team is exploring in a 400,000 square kilometer area.


China says no to NGOs in EC Project for Tibet

According to recent reports the European Commission is allowing the Chinese government to sweep aside safeguards, which ensures that benefits accrue to local Tibetans, in its multi-million pound 'Integrated Rural Development Project' is close to being signed following negotiation between the European Commission and the Chinese government.

It is reported that the European Commission has conceded to Chinese pressure to eliminate guarantees that Tibetan people will be the sole beneficiaries of the project.

The Chinese have also demanded that foreign Non Governmental Organization be excluded from involvement. Without participation of NGOs with direct experience, the project is vulnerable to manipulation by the Chinese authorities. Because of this fear, Free Tibet Campaign, a Tibet support group in UK, has demanded that the project be abandoned. It has quoted Glenys Kinnock, MEP and member of the European Parliament's Development Committee, as saying:"If the project is to benefit local Tibetans , it is essential that foreign experts who have a track record of working in the field are involved."

The Panam project has been suspended for two years following an international outcry and criticism by European parliamentarians as being 'politically insensitive' and base on a 'laughable' and 'haphazard' consultation process.

The European parliament passed a resolution in may 1995 condemning the project, stating that it was 'against the interests of the Tibetan people ' as it was a crucial part of the Chinese plan to bring more Chinese settlers into Tibet. The resolution went on to demand that the European Commission make the granting of aid to China 'conditional on respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms, particularly in Tibet.'

A further resolution was passed in December 1995 calling for the Commission not to proceed with the project until China accepts the Panchen Lama chosen by the Dalai Lama.

The UK Overseas Development Administration has demanded new conditions be imposed on the project before it continues. These included the participation of Tibetans in all project decision making, ensuring Tibetans are establishment on the project monitoring unit.

TIN, London


AID To Snowstorm Victims in Tibet

The snowstorm struck in November 1995 in Jyekundo (Yushu in Chinese) and Zachuka (Shiqu) countries in east and northeastern areas of Tibet. According to the London Guardian (Feb. 28, 1996)" The worst snowstorm for the century endangering the lives of tens of thousands of Tibetan nomads by devastating the herds of Yak and sheep they depend upon for food, clothing and fuel".

Medecins Sans Frontiers, an international relief organization who worked on the scene, reported that the temperature in these areas, which are located high on the Tibetan plateau, dropped to as low as -36 oF, killing more than three quarters of the livestock.

The Tibet Fund,USA who have appealed for aid to the snow storm victims has planned to help the nomads begin to rebuild their herds by purchasing 2,000 yak and 2,000 sheep. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has donated US $ 15,000.00 and appealed for further international assistance for the Tibetan victims in these area.


Study Confirms Chinese Population Transfer

Up to 1979, most of the Chinese who have been sent to Tibet by the government were officials and technical experts who created a Chinese layer of administration and technical expertise above Tibetan society. Some of these migrants were allowed to return home in 1980s and, under policies of liberalization, some emphasis was placed on the training of Tibetan cadres. In the last two or three years, though, this practice has been abandoned as the authorities push ahead with rapid economic development of Tibet. Besides, the government has introduced specific measures, such as incentives to migrate to Tibet and general guidelines (such as exhortations to speed up the development of the"backward" Western regions of the PRC) which are responsible for much of the current influx of Chinese to Tibet.

This is the conclusion arrived at by a report issued by Free Tibet Campaign (formerly Tibet Support Group UK) titled New Majority: Chinese Population Transfer into Tibet, The report is substantially the work of three authors: social anthropologist Anders Hoejmark Anderson, lawyer Sarah Cooke, and China research analyst Michael Willis. Although Commissioned by FTC the researchers worked independently and arrived at their own conclusions which is backed by FTC. The research included 10 weeks of clandestine field study in 1994 by Anderson who had already spent nearly two years in the region since 1985. The work was made possible by a grant from the Petre Kelly Memorial Fund, and is dedicated to her memory.

The study found that the present Chinese development policy for Tibet is to improve the infrastructure, invest in industries, encourage township and private enterprises, facilitate Chinese immigration in the form of private business households, integrate the rural population in the Chinese market economy by modernizing and rationalizing agriculture, reclaiming land through construction of irrigation ditches and settling down nomads."Although in theory Tibetan could benefit equally from this development," the report says,"This is rarely the case."

FTC says,"We have shown that population transfer is taking place in Tibet and circumstances for such transfer, with evidence from fieldwork, Tibetan testimonies and admissions from the Chinese authorities. We drew the conclusion that the migration of large numbers of Chinese into Tibet involves breaches of international law."

The 192-page report, with illustrations, is available for US$ 15 plus postage and packing from:

Free Tibet Campaign, 9 Islington Green, Islington London NI 2XH, UK


Environment Award for a Tibetan

It has been learnt that 65 year old Chagzoe Samphel, the Bursur of Rikya Ladrang has been honored by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, India on February 20, 1996 with a citation and an award in recognition of over a decade of committed service to the region's environment. Samphel began a singular campaign in the mid-70's for planting trees in Tawang in the North-Eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh after he saw the massive environmental degradation the region has suffered as a result of indiscriminate felling of trees. There were initial setbacks in his mission for greening of Tawang for want of the right variety of trees that will grow in the area, but he did not give up.

In 1979, he tried a variety growing in Darjeeling and Kalimpong areas. He quickly learnt that this species can stand the extreme cold winter of Tawang, which is in the Eastern Himalayas and shares borders with Tibet. With this success there was no looking back for Samphel. He bought 1000 to 1500 saplings each year with his own money and planted them with help from others who shared his vision. Currently he has 2000 juniper trees in captive plantation and the tallest among them is known to be 50 feet.

His good work has won him support from local people and authorities. Local forest officers visit him on a regular basis to exchange information.

What inspired him to take up the environmental cause according to Samphel is the teachings of H.H. the Dalai Lama on environment protection.


Half million Chinese to be moved into Tibet

Hong Kong's South Morning Post reports that some 500,000 ethnic Chinese are to be moved into Tibet to work in copper mines, raising concern that the region's ethnic makeup will be severely changed. Beijing authorities plan to build several mining towns, each to house about 100,000 migrant workers, according to the newspaper report.

Tibet News Digest - April 1996


Foreign Investment Sought for Tibet Forestry

The Chinese authorities do not deny that there is logging in Tibet, where forest production accounts for 14 percent of the regions gross domestic product but say that reforestation is much greater than the loss of timber! "The forest growth in the Tibet Autonomous Region has greatly exceeded its timber consumption", reported Xinhua, following a one year survey using remote-sensing technology. Tibet is China's largest forests zone with 7.6 million hectares of forests, including 2.08 billion cubic meters of living dragon spruce trees. 94% of the trees are mature or aged.

Scholars say that in the 1980s the rapid loss of forest cover in China was causing soil erosion on a huge scale, with almost 5 billion tons of soil lost every year. The level of the Yellow River, which flows from north-eastern Tibet across China, rose 10 centimeters per year during the late 1980s, and in some areas the river bed is 10 meters or higher than the land along its banks, leading to"a very high danger from flooding," according to the Population and Development Review, 1990.


Secret film of Deforestation in Tibet

Tibet's forests are in danger of being destroyed by military and governmental deforestation, according to secret footage of tree-cutting in Tibet due to be broadcast by the BBC next week.

The footage is unique, in that it is believed to be first underground video to be made entirely by a Tibetan inside Tibet and smuggled out of the country, without any foreign involvement.

The film called" Cutting Down Tibet" shows huge logging camps in southern Tibet and trucks travelling from Kongpo, in southern Tibet, carrying four or five tree trunks each about 2 or 3 meters in diameter. In one seven-hour session the film crew counted 70 loaded trucks passing them, heading north towards Golmud in Qinghai from where they will be transported to inland China.

"Every day it's the same as this, the film maker can be heard saying. "If they keep transporting logs like this for 5 or 6 years, Tibet's forests will be finished."

The film also shows logging operations near Dawu in Kham, about 500km east of Kongpo, where timber is transported by up to 300 trucks each day eastward into Sichuan province. Large timber-stocking camps are also shown covering several acres, where thousands of logs are stacked in huge piles awaiting transportion to China. The workers in these stocking camps are Chinese, according to the film maker. Most of the truck drivers are Chinese or, in the Kongpo-Nyingtri area of southern Tibet, Chinese Muslims from Qinghai.

The logging is a state enterprise and it is illegal for individuals to cut timber, according to the film maker, who asked not to be named. "If one local person cuts down a tree they have to pay a fine of 50 - 60 yuan (US $6 - 7) or even 100 yuan, but the Chinese government cuts down trees anywhere it like, says the film maker, who did not find any signs of reforestation.

The film claims that the army is also operating sideline business trade in transporting cut timber to China, particularly from its bases in Kongpo. The film maker describes the Kongpo area of Tibet as "one large military camp."

Klemens Ludwig, a German writer and researcher who travelled in Batang, eastern Tibet, in 1993 found that the actual tree cutting was done by Tibetan workers, who were paid 300 yuan ($33) a month by the local county government. "Between six and eight men work in each tree-cutter's camp, following exact instructions from the government as to where to cut, and using only axes," says Ludwig, who saw about 80 such camps on each hillside that was being clear cut. In the sites he visited, the cut trees were collected by truck drivers from Sichuan, whom he says were earning about 4,000 yuan ($440) per month.


Risk of filming for Tibetans

The film was made in conditions of great secrecy by the anonymous Tibetan, who slept in the mountains and filmed from hiding places - including at one point a toilet from where he could watch the logging operations without being detected. He was too frightened to film any close-ups of people working and does not show tree-cutting.

Unauthorized filming is illegal in Tibet and although this rule is waived for tourists, Tibetans are at great risk if they have a video camera." I am very nervous and sometimes I think I am doing this for Tibet. Sometimes I think even if I die, I'm dying for Tibet."

Last september, a Tibetan exile - Ngawang Choephel was detained by the Chinese authorities after he returned to Tibet for the first time in order to film traditional musicians and dancers. He was charged by China of 'spying' and was imprisoned for eighteen years without evidence or proper trial.

Tibet Information Network, 10 May, '96


The Wilderness Society Launches Campaign to Project Tibet's Environment

The Wilderness Society (TWIS) of Australia today camped outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney to launch a campaign to protect Tibet from further environmental damage.

Chanting"stop the ecocide" the society presented a list of 10 demands to the consulate as part of the national campaign, Endangered Tibet, launched to coincide with World Environment Day.

National spokeswoman for the TWIS, Virginia Young, said the effects of environmental damage in Tibet also had repercussions for Australia.

"On World Environment Day, we must take a broad perspective and not just focus on our local issues and I think it is a crucial time for launching the campaign for Tibet," Ms Young said.

"Everything that happens in Tibet has a great deal of effect on the rest of Asia and also to a large degree the rest of the world, including Australia.

Ms Young said seven of Asia's major rivers originated in Tibet and were now among the most silted in the world from deforestation in Tibet.

"Forty-seven percent of the world's population relies on these rivers for their survival," she said.

Ms Young said TWIS had set up action groups across Australia not only to encourage the public to lobby the Chinese government directly through consulates but to put pressure on the Australian government to take some action.

"We think there is a real role for the Australian government here to get involved and lead the way and try to protect the Tibetan environment," she said.

"This is, of course, a very new government and we'll certainly be seeking meetings with Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Environment Minister Robert Hill to discuss what action the Australian government might be able to take."

Friends of the Earth (FOE) joined the Wilderness Society at the consulate to protest the Chinese nuclear test program.

FOE nuclear campaigner John Hallam also said it was time for the Australian government to take action.

"We are told a Chinese nuclear test is imminent, indeed we had expected it to have happened already," Mr Hallam said.

"I would sugg protests from environmentalists and partly due to realization that benefit do not commensurate with the financial, physical and environmental costs.

The Chinese however have an ambitious program, according to the report. In any case, nuclear explosions, if carried out, to divert the Brahmaputra will undoubtedly affect the lower reaches; India should legitimately be concerned about it.

The Brahmaputra is one of the largest river systems in the world covering Tibet, India and Bangladesh. Of the total 2900 km length, a half of the river travels through southern Tibet and the other half through India, and Bangladesh. It assumes different names in different places. In Assam, it is 918 km long, 3 to 19 km wide, having 26 tributaries in the north bank and 15 in the south Bank. The Brahmaputra carries an average sediment yield of 527 million tons per annum or about ten times that of Godavari river.

The average annual water yield from Brahmaputra is 50 million hectares meter or twenty percent of India's est that we would be writing to Mr Downer to suggest to him that in the next few days he place the utmost diplomatic pressure on the Chinese not to test, if indeed, he has not already done so.

(Sydney, June 5, 1996)


Chinese officials confront failure of Yamdrok Tso Project

The top official overseeing the construction of the Yamdrok Tso hydro-electric plant was dismissed and severely criticized for gross mismanagement and poor quality of one of Tibet's most vaunted projects, according to reliable information received from Tibet. The high profile electric generation project is now reportedly in shambles, leaving a wake of inquiries, embarrassment and intrigue.

The Yamdrok Tso hydro-electric project, located 120km southwest of Lhasa, begun in 1985 to "enhance development of industry, agriculture and animal husbandry." But the project has been mired in controversy, and construction was halted at one point after Tibetan officials, including the late Panchen Lama, who vigorously opposed it.

According to official Chinese pronouncement, construction by the Third Division of the hydropower unit of the People's Armed Police was proceeding smoothly. These claims evaporated last fall when Vice Premier Wu Bangguo came to attend opening ceremonies at the plant during the celebrations honoring the 30th anniversary of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Vice Premier Wu was to flip a switch to start the plant's first turbine, but the plant was in such a disarray that electricity had to be piped in from the Yangpachen thermal power plant for the ceremony.

Following the make-shift ceremony, an inquiry was launched discovering that construction of the tunnels leading from the lake to the turbines were leaking terribly, and were not usable. A major issue since the inception of the project has been questions over how much the water level in the lake will drop. Reports say that it has already dropped 1 - 2 meters, creating a lower shoreline.

A high level meeting was convened in April of this year to investigate what had gone wrong and found that it had led to the dismissal of Fang Changquan, the commander of the People's Armed Police construction brigade. A Xinhua news report confirmed that the construction division's deputy commander is now incharge of their next assignment at the Zhikong hydro electric project being built 96 kilometers from Lhasa on the Lhasa River.

Reports from Lhasa and Beijing, from sources who do not wish to be identified, say that Fang has been accused of diverting resources from the power station to her hometown in China.

It appears that Yamdrok Tso's troubles have become widely known and talked about in Lhasa, fueled by resentment that the project had proceeded despite local opposition and warnings from experts and officials that it was poorly planned and environmentally damaging.

WTN, 27th June, 1996

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