The Assam chief minister’s comments on China’s super-dam project [LINK] are not just ill-informed — they exemplify the dangerous distortions that foster complacency in India.

A river’s perennial flow is sustained by mountain springs, upland wetlands or peat bogs, glacial melt, and perennial tributaries. In the case of the Brahmaputra, these enduring water sources lie more in Tibet than in India. Within India, it is the intense monsoonal rains that swell the river seasonally.

China’s super-dam will disrupt the Brahmaputra’s natural flow of nutrient-rich sediment from the Himalayas — a lifeline for the river’s ecological health. Depriving the river of this sediment will erode riverbeds, destabilize banks, degrade natural habitats, and shrink the delta and estuaries, rendering them more vulnerable to sea-level rise.

The super-dam will also disrupt the Brahmaputra’s natural flooding cycle, which sustains fisheries and rejuvenates overworked soils. Without the seasonal delivery of silt, the floodplains of Assam and Bangladesh will lose their natural fertility.

Brahma Chellaney
x.com/chellaney