Himalayan dams, melting glaciers put North East region on disaster alert

GUWAHATI, SEP 6 (AGENCIES): Melting glaciers, hydropower development and climate change have raised alarm in the Northeast, with experts and activists urging urgent measures to prepare for a Nepal-like disaster.
Experts warn that the eastern Himalayan region is increasingly vulnerable to infrastructure development across the fragile mountain landscape, including dams being built across Tibet, Bhutan and India.
“The race to build large hydropower dams in the Himalayas by both China and India has put the entire Himalayas at risk. Associated road building, slope cutting and tunnelling for access corridors are also affecting sediment loads and increasing landslide incidence,” Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, a researcher on the Brahmaputra river basin, told DH.
He said India’s technical and financial support for hydropower projects in Bhutan could ultimately affect downstream areas of western and North Assam and Bangladesh. Recalling the devastation caused by a reported Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) in Sikkim in October 2023, Rahman said lessons from the Nepal tragedy should prompt comprehensive ecological, social and vulnerability audits of hydropower and associated infrastructure projects in the Himalayas.
He warned that climate change would increase the incidence of such disasters, while rapid infrastructure development could amplify their impact. Mass tourism was another concern, he said, calling for a landscape-based approach and more scientific research on GLOFs.
A report by Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies (CESHS), an Arunachal Pradesh government organisation, said glaciers in the Eastern Himalaya, which feed the headwaters of the Brahmaputra river basin, are undergoing transformation because of climate change.
Frequent flash floods in Arunachal Pradesh, which claimed 10 lives in two incidents in June and July, and a flood in relatively less flood-prone Sivasagar in eastern Assam that killed more than 100 people, have heightened concerns over growing ecological disasters.
Many in Arunachal fear that a GLOF or dam disaster in the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra in Tibet and the eastern Himalaya could cause a Nepal-like tragedy. “Arunachal is ringed by glacial lakes and some lie barely 30–50 km from the nearest road and inhabited areas. Despite the threats and warnings, India continues to aggressively push large dams downstream of these lakes. The lessons from Nepal, Kedarnath and Sikkim must not be ignored any longer,” anti-dam activist Ebo Mili told DH.
Following the Nepal disaster, Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, said the sudden glacial collapse and flash flood underscored the fragility of mountain environments, particularly in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, where scientists and communities have long warned of climate risks. Rahman called for comprehensive and cumulative assessments using a bioregional or ecoregional approach, saying the Himalayas are a common resource requiring regional cooperation.
The transformation of glaciers in Mago Chu has concerned downstream communities in Assam. The construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam in the upper Brahmaputra in Tibet is also worrying North East India. India is building dams in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, while water releases from Bhutan dams have inundated houses and damaged crops in western Assam due to sediment flows.