Massive Exploitation of Mineral Resources Caused Mining Disaster in Tibet: CTA report

Last week, Environment and Development Desk (EDD) issued a press statement refuting Chinese government's claim that the landslide in Gyama mine was a "natural disaster".  EDD expressed its fear that this tragic incident could be a result of the aggressive expansion and large-scale exploitation of mineral in the Gyama Valley—a man-made phenomenon rather than just a ‘natural disaster’.

Today, Central Tibetan Administration issued the following press release about the "Assessment Report of the Recent Devastating Landslide in Gyama Valley" prepared by EDD. The report dwell in great detail about the possible man-made cause of the event that claimed at least 83 lives.

Press Release

April 10, 2013

Central Tibet Administration has enough evidence to prove that Gyama (Jiama) mining tragedy is man-made disaster

LANDSLIDE IN GYAMA MINE: Natural or Man-made?

The tragic incident of landslide could be a result of the aggressive expansion and large-scale exploitation of mineral in the Gyama Valley. The tragedy could have been averted.

On Friday, 30 March 2013, China’s official media reported that 83 miners including two Tibetans have been buried after a major landslide hit a part of the Gyama (Ch: Jiama) Copper Polymetallic Mine. So far, the rescue efforts have failed to find any survivors and the chances of survival for those buried are getting slim.  This is a sad and unfortunate incident that resulted in large number of casualties that could be higher than reported. Environment and Development Desk (EDD) fear that this tragic incident could be a result of the aggressive expansion and large-scale exploitation of mineral in the Gyama Valley—a man-made phenomenon rather than just a ‘natural disaster’.

Environment Talk Series in remote Tibetan Settlements

Environment and Development Desk (EDD) Staff Jigme Norbu and Tempa Gyaltsen Zamlha traveled to the remote Tibetan Settlement of Odisha, Mainpat and Bhandara at the end of February 2013. The trip was a follow up to the on going environment awareness  program by EDD to educate general public about current environment situation on Tibetan Plateau. The two staff made it very clear and firm in their approach to make the presentations short, relevant and convenient to the general public.

Twin Earthquakes in Tibet: USGS vs CENC

Yesterday, Xinhua reported about twin earthquakes measuring 5.4M and 4.1M in the Gerze county of Ngari prefecture. (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-02/25/c_132190588.htm). Xinhua's report was based on the information from the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) (http://www.cenc.ac.cn/).

སའི་གོ་ལའི་འཕེལ་འགྱུར་ཁྲོད་ཀྱི་བོད།

ཛམ་ལྷ་བསྟན་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། ཕྱི་དྲིལ་ཁོར་ཡུག་ཚན་པ།

སྔོན་གླེང་མདོར་བསྡུས།

བསྐལ་བ་སྔ་མོའི་དུས་ཤིག་ལ་སའི་གོ་ལའི་སྒང་གི་གླིང་དང་གླིང་ཕྲན་ཡོངས་ས་ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་ལ་མཉམ་དུ་འདུས་པའི་གླིང་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ཀྱང་རིམ་པས་ཁ་གྱེས་ཏེ་སིལ་བུ་འཐོར་སོང་འདུག དེ་བཞིན་བོད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་འདི་ཡང་དང་ཐོག་འཛམ་བུ་གླིང་གི་ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཨ་ཧྥ་རི་ཀཱ་དང་ཨོ་སུ་ཊིར་ལི་ཡཱ་སོགས་དང་མཉམ་དུ་འབྱར་ནས་གནས་ཡོད་ཀྱང་། ས་ཕྱོགས་དེ་ནས་རིམ་བཞིན་ཁ་གྱེས་ཏེ་ད་ལྟར་གནས་བཞིན་པའི་ས་ཕྱོགས་སུ་སླེབས་འདུག།

བོད་ཡུལ་གྱི་ས་གཤིས་རིག་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་སུ་ཆགས་ཡུལ་མི་འདྲ་བ་ལྔ་དང་གདོང་ཐུག་སྔ་ཕྱི་གཉིས་བཅས་དུས་རབས་བདུན་ལ་དབྱེ་ན་གོ་བདེ་ཙམ་ཡོང་། བོད་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་འདི་ཆགས་ཡུལ་མི་འདྲ་བ་ལྔ་བྱུང་བའི་དབང་གི་བོད་ཀྱི་ནང་བཅུད་རྩི་ཤིང་རི་དྭགས་སོགས་ལ་འགྱུར་ལྡོག་ཆེན་པོ་བྱུང་བ་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་གདོང་ཐུག་སྔ་ཕྱི་གཉིས་བྱུང་བའི་དབང་གི་ཕྱི་སྣོད་ལ་འགྱུར་ལྡོག་ཆེན་པོ་བྱུང་ཡོད་པ་དཔེར་ན། གདོང་ཐུག་སྔ་མས་བོད་ཡུལ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་འོག་ཏུ་བསྣུབས་པ་དང་། གདོང་ཐུག་ཕྱི་མས་བོད་ཡུལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དང་བྲལ་ནས་མཐོ་སྒང་ཞིག་ཏུ་བསྒྱུར་བ་བཅས་སོ།།

Is Brahmaputra China’s next target for dam building spree?

After much media speculations, the 510 MW dam of Zangmu (Tib: rDzam) on Brahmaputra in Tibet went on construction in 2010 leaving India and its neighboring country Bangladesh dumbfounded.

Once again the media takes China’s state council approval of three dams-Dagu, Jiacha and Jiexu on Brahmaputra-with immense surprise although it was already circulating in the news for over a year except for Dagu dam (Patranobis, S., 2013). The Times of India reported last year about the six dams Lengda, Zhongda, Langzhen, Jiexu, Jiacha and Zangmu that China is planning to build on Brahmaputra in Tibet (Bagchi, I., 2011).

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MAKE MORE INVESTMENT' AND COUNTY UPGRADE IN THE WESTERN TIBET?

On 25 January 2013, two major announcements were made by China’s official news media: the plan to invest over 3.5 billion Yuan to protect environment and creation of a new county in Nagchu Prefecture in the so called Tibet Autonomous Region (comprising western half of the historical Tibet).

China daily reported that according to the draft budget of 2013 submitted by the finance department of the so called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), "the region plans to invest 3.5 billion Yuan (USD 563 million) in 2013 […] in environmental protection”. The report further stated that most of the investment (3.23 billion) will be used for “major forestation projects and for compensating and rewarding locals who protect grass and forests, and conserve wetlands, lakes and water resources”. Besides, “over 50 million Yuan will be allocated to support environment improvement projects and preserve resources”. The investment will also “support the building of an ecological safety screen on the plateau”, report said.