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The TIPAIMUKH (or Tuiruong to the local indigenous Hmar people) dam is located at Churachandpur district, the SW corner of Manipur[1] It is almost on the border with Mizoram[2] where the river Barak[3] takes a 220 degree turn from SW to the northerly direction flowing through a gorge. According to the International Commission on Large Dams (1928), any such structure of at least of 15 meter high with a water storage capacity of 15.9 million cubic meter or more is to be called a large dam. The huge (390 meter long and of 163 meter high head concrete monster at the altitude of 180 meter above the sea-level and 500 meters down the confluence of Barak and Tuivai river with "billions" of cube meter (M3) reservoir (minimum draw dawn level or MDDL 136 meter, and a maximum of 178 meter giving a storage capacity: 15, 900 million cubic meter with maximum depth of 1725 meter, the largest in India) is situated barely 100 km from the Bangladesh border. It is a multi-purpose project in the sense that the project is designed to harness electricity from 6x250- MW (1500MW ) power house, work as a flood control dam for Monipur and the neighboring Mizoram and provide irrigation of at least 3.1 lakh hectare of cultivable lands using water of the huge reservoir and of the Tuivai or Barak river - the second largest river in the region, providing 7-8% of the total inflow to Bangladesh and mother of Surma- Kushiyara[4] and the Meghna[5] (SKM) system, one of the three major life lines: Ganga/Padma[6], Meghna, Brahmaputra[7] (GMB) that have formed the biggest delta on the mouth of the biggest bay in the world. Critics however, may term a multi-purpose dam that ensconces within itself a host of conflicting purposes. Such a cross- purpose dam can only validate the Biblical dictum that one can not serve two masters at the same time. For, irrigation uses up water required to produce power, while flood control requires keeping the reservoir empty during the monsoon months to deal with an anticipated surfeit of water. The Tipaimukh project was originally conceived in 1955 as a barrage to control flood in Barak Valley in Assam and had nothing to do with Manipur. Subsequently the emphasis has shifted to hydro-electric power generation[8] with irrigation and other benefits as spin-offs. 2.0. The construction process was staggered principally on the face of opposition from the the local people. It has received a boost-up with recent clearance from the environment agency and the construction is now scheduled to be completed by 2012 if every thing goes right. Though the dam will have an installed capacity of 1500MW of electricity, according to a study report (1998) of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) - the sponsoring agency, the best possible scenario envisages a firm generation capacity of 401.25 MW only on the basis of the plant load factor of 28% of the installed capacity, typical for a hydro-electric plant[9]. This implies that at most 412 MW power could be generated regularly. The estimated cost (Rs 15.9 billion, of which Rs.51638.6 million has already been spent in design) is surely to escalate with the gestation period implying cost and time over run. The host state of Manipur is expected to get a maximum of 10-12% share of the generated power (40-45MW) as per standard agreement between the state and the central government of India at the cost of incalculable loss to the ecosystem initiating a catastrophic irreversible damage which is bound affect Bangladesh as a lower riparian neighbor. The possibility of electricity sharing by Bangladesh, as suggested by some, is simply a travesty of truth. This is firstly because of the meager net output and secondly, because of absence of any such facility in the design as admitted by the sponsors themselves.[10] Given the backdrop one can reasonably surmise why such a self-inflicting colossal investment is made to harvest peanuts. Is it to teach a lesson to the rebellious sons of the eastern seven sister states [11] or a manifest schadenfreude towards a neighbor not particularly keen to genuflect before a big brother? Was it not possible to resist the 'disease of gigantism' and adopt small hydropower plants[12]or economically more sustainable smaller Weiss/ Run-of-the-River (RoR) schemes elsewhere to minimize the human induced disaster?[13] The expected maximum head (difference between reservoir water level and power generation unit), in the case of Tipaimukh project is about 160m. But at Loktak Lake[14], in the same region, the head is about 269m- about 100m more than that of the proposed Tipaimukh project). So, why not harness the potential from an alternative and safe site like the lake Loktak of Manipur? Why such a tremendous head is wasted for a diabolic contraption sure to strangulate lifeline of a neighbor? Are the potentially dangerous mega dams the only source of power?[15] What about the increasing success stories of power generation from non renewable sources? For whose benefit and for what benefit or to convey exactly what message the project is being executed by the big neighbor? Is it also part of the game plan that the foreign ministry should play the role of Prima Donna with expected faux from an uninitiated innocent thing while the Water Resources Ministry in the know of the hard-nosed facts and seasoned negotiators be relegated to play the second fiddle from the margin? For whose benefit and for what benefit the issue is conspicuous by its absence in public debate despite nauseating TV talk shows of the veteran fast cats of the so called civil society? Why the Parliament too seems to seek refuge in the dictum: silence is golden when even a Dostoyoskian idiot would recall T.S. Elliot: 'With such knowledge, what forgiveness'? 3.0. The dam is likely to submerge 288- 311 sq. km habitat area of 16 villages, disposes 1,320 indigenous people, endanger 90 more villages of the adjacent Tamelong area and wipe out already rare species of reptiles and mammals, destroy more than 27 thousand hectares of forests and mountains including orchards rich in medicinal and herbal plants, undermine navigation of Barak and several other rivers by putting a hold on 17, 354 cusec flow on the Indian side. In Bangladesh the dam will have particular adverse effect on all the districts of the greater Sylhet, plus two each of the greater Mymensingh, greater Dhaka and three of the greater Comlla, nine districts in all.[16] And all these will be wrought on the dystopian slogan of local pain for national gain in the form of 'an electric bulb from every tree'. (Jiten Yumnam: 2009). 3.1 Effect on for the lower riparian country Bangladesh is bound to be more catastrophic than Farakka,[17] and a second albatross on the cursed neck with perhaps many more to follow as we are yet to have an agreement on water sharing foe 53 of the 54 rivers flowing in from India. Thus the project site, barely one hundred kilometer upstream north from the Zakiganj-Karimganj[18] international border, Sylhet, turns out not only one of a series of mega projects for energy hungry India, but also one of the most sinister one, eventually to control the Meghna through Barak as it did with Farakka to control Padma through Ganga with, surely many more to follow 4.0. The THEMP has already come to represent development aggression, in utter indifference to India's own environmental rules requiring free, prior or informed consent (FPIC) of the local people, or their voiced or concern of the people of lower riparian Bangladesh by furnishing any Detailed Project Report (DPR), despite assurance from the then Minster for Water Resources of India (Priya Rangan Das Munshi) given as early as in September, 2005.[19] Recent reports of damage of drilling machines of NEEPCO, the sponsoring agency, exposes the fact that construction work is already in full swing, with little respect for all existing human rights and developmental standards, including guidelines of the World Commission on Dams for construction of dams. 5.0. The project seems to have been launched like an army operation and one can visualize establishment of a cantonment first at the dam site (as is there at Farakka) to ward off attempts to undermine the construction as have already been made by the local rebellious groups in more than one occasion. One wonders if the dam water is going to act as octane to the already existing fire of agitation among the local inhabitants.[20] 6.0. It is claimed that the NE region of India has the potential of about 58,971 MW of electricity from its flowing rivers, representing 40% of the current electricity demand of India out of which less than 2% (1095MW) have been harnessed so far. The Tipaimukh hydel project turns out to be the biggest of the six such projects undertaken by the NEEPCO under the XII plan (2012-2017). But the region and particularly the site selected for the project in also happens to be one of the most geologically unstable area. The region is one of the six most tectonically active areas of the world that includes California, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Taiwan. The dam –site itself is in the most seismo-tectonic zones.[21] of the eastern India. 6.1. This is because the fact that the structural-tectonic features of Indo-Myanmar region (IMR) in general and Manipur in particular evolved through interaction between India and the Myanmar plates rather than the Indian-Eurasian (Chinese) plates under shear deformation mechanism which is still active in the region. The faults and fractures around the dam axis belongs to a category that may undergo strike-slip and extension movements causing considerable displacement like moderate to large earthquakes and, a displacement by a mere a few centimeter along the dam axis is enough to cause a major dam disaster. Thus the proposed dam axis falls on a 'fault line' potentially active and a possible epicenter for another major earthquake. In addition, the reservoir o0f the dam itself may trigger an earthquake 6.2. It has further been claimed that well-designed and constructed rock fill dams are the safest type for large height dams. Needless to say, such claims are made for ideal conditions without taking into account of the condition of the dam site. Tipaimukh would be among the largest of such dams in the world. But what is not mentioned is geo-morphological condition of the site itself. The gigantic (90m high) earth-filled Teton Dam in US collapsed in less than one and a half hour deluging the down stream with 20 m high waves. The Chinese-built a large and high dam in Cameroon, Africa, and 40km east of the Nigerian border on the Benue River in 1980. Design flood for this large dam was taken as 50,000-year period flood. In the high hilly drainage basin of the dam, there was very high rainfall with consequent abnormal rise of water level of the reservoir in 1988 flood season, almost overtopping the dam. It was a rock-fill dam on which overtopping might have resulted in washing away of the dam with catastrophic consequences for both countries.The Huaccoto Dam in Peru was 170 m high, similar to the Tipaimukh Dam; failed within 48 hours due to a natural landslide in the reservoir. Fact is the old fashioned rock-filled design is basically outmoded and given the seismic-tectonic characteristic of the site, the dam does carry potential risk of great ecological catastrophe: human and environmental. Hence for a dam in a hilly earthquake-prone and a high intensity rain region like Tipaimukh, a 100,000 to 500,000-year design flood should have been undertaken. In all probability that has not been done. If it had indeed been done, the several episodes of dam failure would have turned up in the study. Clearly, over enthusiasm for the dam has pushed a through dam-break study for Tipaimukh at the back seat. 7.0. It is not a fact that the downstream adverse effects of a Tipaimukh Dam-break have been not been studied by the Government of Bangladesh .Since 1992-94, the Flood Action Plan 6 (FAP 6) which had a Future Without Plan component that looked at a dam-break scenario on the basis of whatever data on the project were made available through the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC)[22]. At that time, the dam reservoir water is planned to be diverted for irrigation in Catcher District of India at the cost of water flow down the Surma and Kushiara in Bangladesh, particularly its North Eastern Region. 7.1. As no statement was available how much water Indian intends to siphon off through the project , it was assumed for FAP-6 that the total depth of irrigation water would be 1 M and that the water would be diverted on a continuous basis during the six dry months (November through April). With that rather sober assumption, a dam-break scenario[23] was also envisaged by the experts. It transpired that the Dam posed serious adverse consequences for the Surma, Kushiyara and Meghna River system with likelihood of major tectonic realignment with decreased weight of the water load. Assuming the events as random with a simple binomial probability model with a return period of 30 to 50 years, there would be 40-60% probability of a major earthquake (7.6 magnitudes) with epicenter at Srimangal of Maulavibazar by 2015 (similar to the 8 July 1918 event) causing severe disruptions in river channels, collapse of river banks and directions. Assuming a return period of 300-1000 years, there was a 2-5% probability of a really large (8.7magnitude) earthquake at the Shillong Plateau as the epicenter (similar to the one of 12 June 1897), the largest on record causing major change in the existing morphologic trends and even inducing re-configuration of the total drainage system. 7.2 The study is corroborated by reports of past disasters. The District Gazetteer of Assam (1917) reported on the 1899 earthquake along the Brahmaputra River informing that "Strong ground shaking triggered liquefaction of river cross-sections in a few seconds,..bottom of the river heaved, the banks lowered; water immediately started to rise and overflow the banks and adjacent zones where infilling of the channels took place. Natural sills formed causing temporary lakes to develop; channels gradually re-opened by scouring where currents were strong enough, and water levels decreased.' 7.3 Generally, a flood wave is found to travels downstream at a rate in the order of 10 km /hr reaching velocities as high as 30 km/ hr. This implies that in case of collapse of a large dam like Tipaimukh, the initial flood wave could reach the eastern limit of Bangladesh, say of 200 km from the dam site, in 24-48 hours, inundating to a depth of about 5 meter. Further, due to small gradient slowing the gravity flow, may take several weeks to drain out the water of the enormous reservoir keeping the Northeast Region pended for quite some time. A release volume of 10 Mm3, for instance, could keep a ponded area of 100 km2, on the depth of 1.0 m above the normal flood level. How one is expected to respond to such a deluge? Ask for a Noah's arc? 8.0 In general, it can reasonably be said that environmental degradation, economic crisis and hydrological drought will cause colossal irreversible damage to Bangladesh. The free flowing Surma and Kushyara rivers supporting internal navigation agriculture, irrigation navigation, drinking water supply, industries like fertilizer, electricity, gas etc.fisheries, wildlife in numerous haors and low lying areas in the entire Sylhet division and some peripheral areas of Dhaka division will suddenly dry up and remain so particularly during November to May. 8.1 Water flow in Meghna is likely to fall by about 80% during winter and by 25% during the rest of the season adversely affecting 2 million inhabitants in Cacher-Karimganj in India, 12 million in greater Sylhet,6 million in greater Comilla,,4 million in greater Noakhali, 6 million in greater Dhaka, i.e. about 30 million in Bangladesh alone.[24] Agriculture based on tube wells will become dysfunctional. 8.2 Massive environmental degradation will occur, drastically affecting weather and climate, turning a wet cooler habitat into a hot uncomfortable cauldron. 8.3 Scarcity of water will cause siltation on river beds. High rainfall in the catchments area of the dam, will release enormous quantity of sediment-laden flood water causing severity of flood in the silted –up channels of Surma and Kushyara causing floods in adjoining additional areas. 8.4 Navigation in the lower Meghna will become next-to impossible with severe deplete of water flow and consequential increased sedimentation, severity in flooding during the wet season and in the dry season, the upper Meghna up to Chandpur may simply dry up. In short, the adverse effect of the Tipaimukh project on our water resource management, would be worse than what the Farakka has wrought on the G.K. Project[25] 9.0 It has been suggested that the Government of Bangladesh should formally and immediately request the Union Government of India, to stop the construction of the Dam, taking advantage of the relationship existing between the governments of the two countries at the moment through JRC and bi-lateral diplomatic forum like SAARC during which all works on the dam should strictly be kept in abeyance. 9.1 It has also been suggested that if nothing tangible comes out from such negotiations within a reasonable given time frame, we should seek intervention by United Nations under the 1815 Vienna Meet for settlement of the dispute as it was met for instance, between Czechoslovakia (later Slovakia) and Hungary on water sharing of Danube by the International Court of Justice in 1921. It may also be recalled that the Indus river water dispute was also successfully negotiated between India and Pakistan with the assistance of the World Bank. The Mekong River water dispute was also resolved through such intervention by the UN. So our problem is not quite a unique one: there are about 214 rivers in the world that flow through more than one country and out of these, at least nine [26]are flowing through as many as half a dozen x countries. It has also been stated that the different provision of various agreements, treaties, conventions may be invoked to buttress our stand like: violation of the 1996 Indo-Bangladesh Treaty on Ganges water sharing, UN Convention on water sharing of 1997, UN Declaration of basic Human Rights of 1948,,Convention on Biodiversity( CBD), World Bank guidelines for conservation of the environment, UN Development Conventions, Guidelines of the World Dam Commission, etc. to resolve the issue acceptable to all the stake holders. 9.2 It has further been recommended that we should lend our voice to the protest raised by the indigenous people of the dam-site for a free, prior and informed consent" (FPIC) as provided under the International convention [27] The argument runs: If their problems can be solved through mediation of a third party, why not our? [28] All these are noble suggestions. But the caveat lies in the reality the socio-economic and cultural norms that prevail amongst those economies are quite different from what is here in our South Asia. Our foreign policy is professedly based on friendship to all and enmity to none. In reality, however, there prevails a sense of uneasiness, being a tiny neighbor next to a giant of overwhelming influence. 10.0 What is of most importance is that the International Conventions are less than clear on these issues. It is true that the Convention, Protection and Use of Tran-boundary Water courses and Tran-boundary Lakes of 1992 provided some bindings for environmental protection (Article 2, 2b). Articles 5a, 5b also refers to sustainability. In the Helsinki Agreement, there is a full article (Article 22) on issue of dispute settlement. It is also true that this Convention has been adopted by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 1997 with 'duty to cooperate in protection and development' (Article 5) protection of the ecosystem (Article20-23), provision for dispute settlement (Article 33).But all these are for advanced rational societies where one can still discern modicum of civility and methods even in their apparent madness. The only basic frame work for any international agreement between states sharing a common water course is still the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational uses of international waters of 1997. But the snag is that to make the Convention binding, there is a minimum requirement of 35 signatories while till date, only 15 member-states have put their signatures on it.[29] The Berlin Rules on Water Resources (2004) with its particular provision for settlement of International water disputes (Chapter 14) mooted by the International Law Association is also yet to be a binding Convention. 11.0 Quite a few have suggested that as the first step, the Joint River Commission,(JRC) which remains mostly dysfunctional, should jump- start spade works for a summit meet at the topmost level of the government as an exclusive agenda sharing for water sharing of the Bramhaputra, Meghna basins on just and equitable basis, buttressed by the International consensus. Other stake holding states can also be factored in at subsequent stages, if possible, as the area of the total catchments of the Ganga-Meghna- Bramhaputra,(GMB) that have largely created the delta itself is about eleven times larger than the total land mass of Bangladesh, Such a phased out plan for water sharing of the common rivers at the soonest is all the more imperative on the face of increasing crisis for sweet water all over the globe and one need not be terribly upset if the next world war is flashed not by oil but by demands for sweet water. How can we possibly forget that Bangladesh is essentially product of its 230 or so rivers, the total length of all these rivers would cover fifteen thousand miles and yet, there is a gradual dying of all the rivers every day? How can we possibly ignore the fact that existence of at least twenty rivers of Bangladesh are at a stake and out of these, fifteen have already dried up. They exist on the map only but in reality, we have lost them forever. How can we possibly ignore the fact that due to frequent change in course and other causes, we have already lost thousand of acres land to India[30]. Hence, the team/ teams of Parliament members and of experts supposed to visit the Tipaimukh dam site, as recently declared by a cabinet member, should ask their Indian counterparts for design/survey data, drawings/maps etc, and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report prepared by the dam authority to check-up if the Dam Break Study and EIA study have been made properly. All these are admittedly reasonable propositions and there is no harm in attempting them. The JRC can be given a new lease of life and even the proposal to approach and stand up before the UN to voice our rightful claim in no uncertain terms, can also be ventured by our foreign ministry. But what worries most is the bitter experience that we have from past quixotic grand pronouncements and half-hearted attempts ending the initial bangs in small whimpers. How can we possibly forget the reality that the complex web of hydro-politics inexorably leads to an inextricable interdependence, particularly between two asymmetric neighbors allowing little scope to voice its inconveniences? 11.0 We may conclude with the observation that Nature does not respect man-made political orders and the history of human civilization is also history of rivers. We can claim to control them but at the end of the day, any such vainglorious attempt is doomed to relics of the dead as the artifacts and the very name of MoenzoDaro literally suggests. As observed by Arundhati Roy, big multipurpose hydro-electric projects are big contradictions and building them in earthquake-prone areas like Tipaimukh, is too big a mistake to be resolved by the god of small things like livelihood of the common men. 10.2 It is said that "The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives. India, with third largest number of dams in the world, is precisely sowing in the wind to reap the whirlwind. In one hand, with blessings of the sole global super power, she desires to play an increasingly pivotal role in the comity of nations, and on the other, brazenly disowning to be her brothers keeper as well by manifest indifference towards an equitable and just sharing of the common water courses, numbering almost 300, and about 40% of the global people's living depends around them. 10.3 Given the condition what course can we possibly seek to solve, if not to dissolve the issue? It seems that the most unique character of the people of Bangladesh is that, in their heart of hearts, there is an indomitable spirit that can be ignored by any only at his/her own peril. That spirit was once manifest in 1947, 1952-54, in 1970—7, over and over again, during every watershed of the national history. That is the spirit that once flickered during the different peasant revolts against a visibly incomparably superior adversary. That is the spirit that keeps life surviving after devastating surges and cyclones that periodically visit us with all their fury. In the circumstances, the very least that we can do is to sensitize the people about urgency of the issue, to kindle once again that promethean spirit, transforming them to what the in science is termed a singular soliton If a grain of faith can move a mountain, as the scriptures assure us, a united, solid phalanx of 150 million can surely bring a goliath to its knees and hopefully, to its senses; reduce the mountain to a mole hill. In other words, the challenge is not so much of diplomatic adroit maneuverings and outwitting chessmanship as of arousing the nation from its slumber by taking into folds people of all strains of political convictions and motivate them to stand up against the diabolical design to obliterate the very existence as a nation. Is it too much to expect that the leadership should come from the daughter of the very architect of the nation? This is a real challenge for both the Water and the Foreign Affairs Ministry and above all, for both the leaders of Position and the Opposition to rise above party tribalism and present a united front for the sake of the singular objective: survival of the nation. Seismic map of the eastern India, indicative of intense tectonic activity in the region around the Tipaimukh dam site. 
[1] Manipur 'land of jewels' as the name suggests, is with nine administrative districts including Churachandpur (area 4570 sq. km, population of 2,27,905.site of the Tipaimukh dam), and a total population of 23,800,000 (2001 census) in an area of 8,628 sq mile (22,347 km²) is one of the eight states of NE India. During the WWII, Manipur and particularly its capital Imphal, an oval-shaped valley of approximately 700 square miles surrounded by Blue Mountains at an elevation of 790 meters above the sea level, was the scene of many fierce battles between the Allied forces and the Azad Hind Fouz of Netaji Subah Bose backed by the Japanese. There has been an separatists movement in Manipur since Indian independence by several groups, currently estimated to number 34 including non-violent ones, of which at least seven prominent ones are active. These include the United National Liberation Front (UNLF with some 2500 active militants), Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), and Peoples Liberation Army (PLA, perhaps with 1500 militants).. The presence of the mountain ranges not only prevents the cold winds from the north from reaching the valley but also acts as a barrier to the cyclonic storms originating from the Bay of Bengal. The South Westerly Monsoon picks up moisture from the Bay of Bengal and heads towards Manipur, hits the eastern Himalayan Ranges and produces a massive amount of rain in the state. There are four major river basins in Manipur State, including the Barak river basin (Barak valley) to the west. The Barak rive,, the largest river of Manipur, originates in the Manipur Hills and is joined by a number of tributaries including Tuivai. After its junction with the Tuivai, the Barak River turns north and forms the border with Assam State, and then enters the Cachar District of Assam.. The rivers draining the Manipur Hills are comparatively young, due to the hilly terrain. These rivers are corrosive in nature and assume turbulent form in the rainy season. The total water resources of the Barak and Manipur basins have been estimated to be 18.487 cubic kilometers .The soil contains substantial iron in the hill area and the alluvium in the valley, containing loam, small rock fragments, sand and sandy clay, etc. On the plains, especially flood plains and deltas, the soil is quite thick. The top soil on the steep slopes is very thin. Soil on the steep hill slopes is subject to high erosion, resulting in gullies and barren rock slopes. Manipur enjoys a generally amiable climate, largely due to its surrounding hilly location 790 meters above sea level. 41.1% of the population is in the hill areas and are divided in to at least 29 different tribes including Meitei Muslims known as Meitei Pangal.or simply Pangals 
[2] Mizoram, literally meaning land of the highlanders, is with at least 21 major rolling hills, valleys, rivers and lakes. The hills are steep (avg. height 1000 meters) and separated by rivers , gradually rise up to 1,300 meters to the east at places, go up to a height of over 2,000 meters like the Phawangpui Tlang ( the Blue Mountain), the highest peak situated south-eastern part of the state. Its tropical location combined with the high altitude gives it a mild climate all year round. The earliest Mizos (Mi= People, Zo= Hill), also known as Kukis were possibly from banks of the Yalung River in China, if not from Mongolia. The Mizos are divided into numerous tribes, like Lusais (People who play with heads) /Luseis (Long-Headed people), the Chakmas, originally from Arakan and now also in Bangladesh and the Hmers- inhabitants of the Tipaimukh dam. In 1959, the Mizo Hills was devastated by a great famine known in Mizo history as 'Mautam Famine', attributed to flowering of bamboos (30% of Mizoram is covered with wild bamboo forests. Flowing of bamboo is an event which takes place once every 48 years and further, according to some experts it has an effect on rat fertility, causing boom in the rat population devouring the crops and setting the famine condition. .Anti-famine movements eventually resulted in formation of the political organization Mizo National Front (MNF) for achieving sovereign independence of Greater Mizoram. The Government of India used its air force, the first ever to quell a movement of any kind among its citizens. Eventually, the union government turned the Mizo Hills into a Union Territory (U.T.) in 1971 and a state in 1987.. One of the most important and useful river is the Tuivawl /Tuivai which flow through the northern territory and eventually join the Bareak River in Cachar District The western part is drained by Karnaphuli (Khawthlang tuipui) that flows skirting Chittagong of Bangladesh . [3] From its source in the Manipur Hills of India, near Mao Songsang, the river Barak (average depth 282 feet /86 meter with maximum depth of 550 feet/170 meter.) flows west through Manipur, then southwest leaving Manipur and entering Mizoram where it flows southwest then veers abruptly north joining a north flowing stream and then flows into Assam where again, it turns and flows west past the Silchar town ,bifurcating into the Surma (northern branch ) and the Kushiyara (southern branch) before entering the Sylhet Depression forming the Surma Basin. From the point of bifurcation, the Kushiyara flows westwards to Bangladesh forming the northern boundary of the Karimganj. Bangladesh, the river is again divided near Moulavi Bazar, the northern branch assuming the name Bibiyana and the southern branch, Shakha Barak. The Bibiyana later merges with the Surma near Markuli in Habiganj and assumes the name Kalni. Their combined stream eventually merges with the Meghna. The southern stream of Kushiyara resumes the original name Barak / Shakha Barak and flows in a south-westerly direction through Habiganj and finally falls into the old bed of the Brahmaputra near Bhairab Bazar. Kishoreganj, the terminus for the Surma-Kushiyara streams to give rise to the mighty Meghna. The Surma-Kushiyara-Meghna-River System (SKM) system flows a total of 946 km major part (669 km) of which, because of the Meghna, belongs to Bangladesh. Meghna, originating within Bangladesh, eventually flows to the Bay of Bengal, skirting Bhola with giving in route such off shoots like the 1.5 km width Safipur, one of the main rivers of the South Bengal. [4] Surma River, a major river in Bangladesh, is part of the SKM system, starts as the Barak River from northeast India divides at the Bangladesh border into the Surma and the Kushiyara rivers. It ends in the Kishoreganj , where the two rivers Surma and Kushiyara rejoin to form the Meghna River, ultimately flowing into the Bay of Bengal. The average depth of river is 282 feet and maximum depth is 550 feet The Surma is fed by tributaries from the Meghalaya Hills to the north, and is also known as the Baulai River after it is joined by the south-flowing Someswari River. The Kushiyara receives tributaries from the Sylhet Hills and Tripura Hills to the south, the principal one from the Tripura Hills being the Manu. The Kushiyara is also known as the Kalni River after it is joined by a major offshoot (distributary) from the Surma. [5] The Meghna River , one of the three that forms the Ganges Delta, the largest on earth fanning out to the Bay of Bengal. The Meghna is formed inside Bangladesh by the joining of different rivers originating from the hilly regions of eastern India. The Upper Meghna meets Padma near Chandpur wherefrom it flows as the Lower Meghna into the Bay of Bengal. Lower Meghna is also reinforced by the Dhaleswari before reaching Chandpur as well. When the Padma, the largest distributary of the Ganges in Bangladesh joins with the Jamuna river- the largest distributary of the Brahmaputra, and the further join with the Meghna in Chandpur, the brown and hazy water of the Padma mix with the clear water of the Upper Meghna and, the two distinct streams flow side by side between the same common banks making half of the river clear and the other half brown and flow almost in a straight line down to the Bay of Bengal leaving braids of little rivers , all of which rejoin Meghna at downstream. With an average depth is 1,012 feet and a maximum depth is 1,620 feet, The Meghna is the widest river (near Bhola, it is 12 km wide) among those that flow completely inside the boundaries of Bangladesh. Meanwhile at Ghatalpur of Brahmanbaria, the river Titas emerges from Meghna and after circling two large bends of 240 km, falls into the Meghna again near Nabinagar of Habiganj. In Daudkandi, Comilla, again, Meghna is joined by the great river Gomti, created by the combination of many streams. Bridges over Meghna and Gomoti are two of the country's largest bridges. Further down, near Muladhuli in Barisal district, the Safipur river , a 1.5 km wide offshoot of the Meghna creates one of the main rivers in South Bengal. Finally, near Bhola, just before flowing into the Bay of Bengal, the river divides into two main streams in the Ganges delta and separates an island from both sides of the mainland. The western stream is called Ilsha and the eastern one is called Bamni. Thus the Surma-Meghna River System is a river complex that flows a total of 946 km (669 km within Bangladesh. [6]6] Padma, the main distributor of the Ganges from which about one third of the Bangladeshis draw their sustenance, enters Bangladesh at Shibganj, ChapaiNawabganj. Just west of Shibganj, the distributory Bhagirathi emerges and flows southwards taking the name Ganga as well as the Hoogly River. While in Bangladesh, it flows as Padma and near former goalando (present Rajbari) 2200 km from the Himalayan source, joins Jamuna-the lower Brahmaputra and still further down at Chandpur, meets Meghna. [7] The mighty river Brahmaputra, a paleo-river is older than the Himalayas. The river with steep gorges and rapids in Arunachal Pradesh enters Assam and turns into a braided river with at places, 16 km wide and with tributaries, creating a flood plain called the Brahmaputra Valley which is /80-100 km wide and 1000 km long characterized by ox-bow lakes with a unique hydro- geomorphic environment. [8] Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower i.e., the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water, the most widely used form of renewable energy. Worldwide, hydroelectricity supplied approximately 20% of the world's electricity, and accounts for about 88% of electricity from renewable sources. A hydel project utilizes natural water course for generating electricity, much like a gas turbine, the prime mover and, a generator to transfer mechanical (kinetic) energy of water to electrical energy, mostly from the potential energy of dammed water driving the turbine. The energy extracted from the water depends on the volume and on the difference in height between the source and the water's outflow and this height difference, called the head, is critical as the potential energy in water is proportional to the head. To obtain very high head, water for a hydraulic turbine may be run through a large pipe called a penstock. Thus the idea is to build a dam on a large river that has a large drop in elevation. The dam stores lots of water behind it in the reservoir. Near the bottom of the dam wall there is the water intake. Gravity causes it to fall through the penstock inside the dam. At the end of the penstock there is the turbine propeller, turned by the moving water. The shaft from the turbine goes up into the generator, which produces the power. Finally, power lines are connected to the generator that carries electricity. The water continues past the propeller through the tailrace into the river past the dam Thus the hydraulic turbine converts the energy of flowing water into mechanical energy and the generator converts the mechanical energy into electricity. The operation of a generator is based on the principles that when a magnet is moved past a conductor, it causes electricity to flow. In a large generator, electromagnets are made by circulating direct current through loops of wire wound around stacks of magnetic steel. A simple formula for approximating electric power production at a hydroelectric plant is: P = hrgk, where P is Power in kilowatts, h is height in meters, r is flow rate in cubic meters per second, g is acceleration due to gravity of 9.8 m/s2, and k is a coefficient of efficiency ranging from 0 to 1. [9]The efficiency of a hydel project is not difficult to calculate. For a plant with water flow rate say 1.25m3/sec, a head of 254meter the efficiency, assuming the water inlet and discharge ducts having the same area and further, no heat is transferred to or absorbed from the surroundings, the Potential Energy of the water would be = water mass flow/sec (1.25m3 /sec) density of water in kg/meter (.998g/cm2=998kg/m2) x gravitational force (g=9.81 m/sec2) x height of the discharge head (254 m) or 3,108 kJ. From this, the energy lost as heat is to be subtracted. Since heat capacity of water is 4.17 Jouls, the total energy lost as heat would be 4.17 (heat capacity)x 1.25 (water flow rate)x 998 (water density in kg/m3)x 0.4 (the coefficient, say )=2082 kJ. Subtracting (3108-2082) we get 1026 as the energy gained .and the efficiency as 1026/3108=33%. [10] In a recent seminar on 'Regional Connectivity: Potential for Infrastructure Development and Energy in South Asia' the Commerce Minister (Faruk Khan), underscoring potential of the water and energy resource potential of the region, bemoaned that those who were talking excessively on the issue are actually not in the know of the fact' and hinted about possibility of sharing of the generated energy and declaring at the same time that' If the Tipaimukh dam is not beneficial for Bangladesh, then it will not be put in place. Bangladesh will not give its clearance for the project.' (Emphasis is in the original). Only an irresponsible fetus, under hallucination can nurture the illusion and delusion that the fate of a project in a neighboring state can be altered by mere words words and words and no action, innocent about the actual progress of the project as is evident from the statement that 'The PM will send a team of parliamentary members and experts to the Tipaimukh-dam site.. for a first hand view'. (The Independent, 27 May, 2009, p-1, 2). Such flabbergasting, presumably meant for the hoi-polloi, only invokes parable of the legendary futile command of king Caniute to the advancing sea waves not to proceed further. [11] The Seven Sister States are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur,Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripua, with a total population of 38.6 million ( 2000), about 3.8 percent of India's total. Arunachal Pradesh, "land of the dawn lit mountains /of the rising sun" is historically related with Tibet, is divided into sixteen districts with a population around a million in an area of 32,333 sq mile. It is with a large percent of India's untapped hydropower potential. In Simla Conference (1913-1914) Sir Henry McMahon, drew up the 550 mile international border line named after him, disputed by China . Assam with evidences of human settlements from all the periods of the Stone ages, is in the eastern-most projection of the Indian Plate, where the plate is thrusting underneath the Eurasian Plate creating a subduction zone giving a unique geomorphic environment, a land of high rainfall and at the same time , one of the most the flood –prone and frequently affected with mild earthquakes place in the world. Assam, supplying of up to 25% of India's petroleum needs is also known for Assam tea, silk, and its rich biodiversity .The meandering Bramaputra, and the Barak rivers form valleys, equivalent to the size of Ireland and Austria and. In the south, the Barak, originating in the Assam-Nagaland border, flows through the Cachar district with a 40-50 km wide valley and enters Bangladesh with the name Surma.The hills were popular habitats probably due to availability of exposed doleritic basalt useful for tool-making. Divided into 27 administrative districts and 49 "Sub-divisions" with a total population estimated at 28.67 million in 2006 and as many as 115 ethnic groups speaking forty-five dialects, Assam has given a hybrid culture with assimilation of the Kamrupa-Kingdom for almost 700 years , Ahom dynasty of the 13th century for next 600 years, Kachari and Koch Kingdom 12th-18th century and many of the cultural-systems are still surviving as an important part of Assamese way of life. Census %± 1951 606,000 — 1961 769,000 26.9% 1971 1,012,000 31.6% 1981 1,336,000 32.0% 1991 1,775,000 32.9% 2001 2,319,000 30.6% Source:Census of India[1] Meghalaya ( "The Abode of Clouds") also known as the "Meghalaya Platue", with 7 districts, mainly of archean rock formations, containing rich deposits of valuable minerals including coal, uranium and has many rivers, some creating deep gorges mostly rainfed and therefore seasonal. and several beautiful waterfalls , is a hilly strip about 300 km long (east-west) and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 8,700 sq. mile and a population of d 2,175,000 in 2000. It is bounded by Assam and Bangladesh .The capital Shillong has a population of 260,000.Meghalaya was formed by carving out two districts of the state of Assam. Tribal people make up the majority of Meghalaya's population. The Khasis are the largest group, Jaintias, Garos etc. One of the unique features of the State is that a majority of the tribal population in Meghalaya follows a matrilineal system where lineage and inheritance are traced through women and may be the world's largest surviving matrilineal culture wherein the "Kha Khadduh" (or the youngest daughter) inherits all the property and acts as the caretaker of aged parents and any unmarried siblings Meghalaya is the wettest state of India. The town of Cherapunji in the Khasi Hills south of capital Shillong holds the world record for most rain in a calendar month, while the village of Mawsynram, near the town of Cherrapunji, holds the distinction of seeing the heaviest yearly rains It is predominantly an agrarian economy but with a rich base of natural resources and, yet nearly one-third the total population of the state in 2000 were below the poverty line , mostly in the rural areas. Meghalaya is a land locked state and roads are the main links amongst a large number of small settlements in remote areas. The Meghalayan subtropical forests have been considered among the richest botanical habitats of Asia. Nagaland, originally referred to as Chingmee (Hill People), is a mountainous state with hills rising from the Brahamaputra Valley in Assam with a population of nearly two million people, it has a total area of 6,401 sq.mile - is one of the smallest states of India with eleven districts is probably' the most populated Baptist state in the world' with 60 different dialects of Sino-Tibetan family. During World War I, the British recruited several hundred Nagas and sent them to France to work as laborers at the front. Returning home, they initiated the Naga nationalist movement with intermittent violence which ultimately resulted in an agreed upon cease-fire or cessation of operations in 1997 which continues till date. Tripura,. the second Rubber Capital of India after Kerala, the third smallest but second most densely populated state (population: 31 million within a stretch of land 184 km from north to south to and 113 km from east to west giving a density of 304 persons per square kilometer) the state is surrounded by Bangladesh on all sides save the east where Karimganj of Assam and Aizwal, capital of Mizoram connect with India. Thus a landlocked state, but with many rivers including the Manu and a history of over 2500 years and 186 kings and therefore plethora of legends including origin of the state name itself which in all probability, is a corruption of Twi-bupra( twi is water , bupra confluence) as names of several villages would testify. | Census | Pop. | | %± | | 1951 | 639,000 | | — | | 1961 | 1,142,000 | | 78.7% | | 1971 | 1,556,000 | | 36.3% | | 1981 | 2,053,000 | | 31.9% | | 1991 | 2,757,000 | | 34.3% | | 2001 | 3,199,000 | | 16.0% | | Source:Census of India[10] | | Census | Pop. | | %± | | 1951 | 213,000 | | — | | 1961 | 369,000 | | 73.2% | | 1971 | 516,000 | | 39.8% | | 1981 | 775,000 | | 50.2% | | 1991 | 1,210,000 | | 56.1% | | 2001 | 1,990,000 | | 64.5% | | Source:Census of India[3] | | | | | | | | | | [12] Although large hydroelectric installations generate most of the world's hydroelectricity, some situations require small hydro plants. These are defined as plants producing up to 10- megawatts in our country or up to 30 megawatts in USA. A small hydro plant may be connected to a distribution grid or may provide power only to an isolated community Small hydro can be of even one MW in size, but in our country, the Small Hydropower projects (SHP) are generally classified as Mini (10-99MW), Micro (100-999MW) and Small (1000-25,000 MW), each of either low head (below 3 meters), medium head (30-75 meter) or of high head (75 plus meter), SHPs are particularly popular in China, having over 50% of world's SHPs.The estimated potential of SMH in India is 15,000MW and there are 4250 potential sites with aggregate capacity of 10,000. So far, 466 projects in 29 states with a total capacity of 1530 MW have been installed and a further 610MW of SMH projects are in the pipeline. All these SMH are mainly to bring electricity in 15,000 villages in India and they operate mainly under the run-off in the hilly areas [13] It is true that late Nehru had an obsessive dream for building of such mega facilities as modern temples for a modern India. It is also true that for the villagers displaced by the Hirakund Dam in 1948, he had the sermon:' If you are to suffer you should suffer in the interest of the society'. But it is also true that in a speech given before the 29th Annual Meeting of the Central Board of Irrigation and Power (17 November, 1958) said he: For some time past, however, I have been beginning to think that we are suffering from what we may call 'the disease of gigantism'. We want to show that we can build big dams and do big things. This is a dangerous outlook developing in India…the idea of big- having big undertakings and doing big things for the sake of showing that we can do big things-is not good outlook at all.' And 'It is …small irrigation projects, the small industries and the small plants for electric power, which will change the face of the country far more than half –a-dozen big projects in half-a- dozen place' (Quoted by Arundhati Roy in her article on Narmada:'The Greater Common Good', compiled in the book 'The Algebra of Infinite Justice', Penguin Books, 2002, p-305). Was it a subconscious paradigm shift on the part of Nehru, obsessed with the romantic paternal protective morality of socialistic sentiments shifting to his mentor Gandhi's nurturing morality of an equally romantic Ram Rajyya? [14] The Loktak Lake, 48 km from Imphal, Manipur is the largest fresh water lake in the North East India, a veritable miniature inland of the central plain. The total area occupied by all the lakes is about 600 km The Manipur river basin has eight major rivers all originating from the surrounding hills deposit their sediment load in the Loktak Lake [15] The New Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment in a study 'Floods, Floodplains and Environmental Myths in 1999 criticized the embankment mode of managing floods, which, creates problems rather than of ameliorating them. Many Himalayan rivers are embanked all the way and as a result at many places the river beds are higher than the surrounding areas on the banks. Moderate rainfall causes inundation, as seen in West Bengal and Bihar. Rivers in the Himalayas, an erosion-prone mountainous region, carry a lot of silt. The question is whether to resort to flood management or learn how to live with floods. Indeed, Human behavior is teleological, and thus not governed proximally by straight physics. But that is first an illusion, because it is only a proximal illusion. Second, we must not pretend, especially to ourselves, that the laws of nature are known to any significant extent. And finally, who says Homo sapiens is exogenous? We are part of the system, and we survive, like every one else by the natures consent As observed by Arundhati Roy, 'Big Dams are obsolete. They're uncool. They're undemocratic, they're Undemocratic. They're Government's way of accumulating authority (deciding who will get how much water and who will grow what where). They're a guaranteed way of taking a farmer's wisdom away from him.. They're a brazen means of taking water, land and irrigation away from the poor and gifting it to the rich. Their reservoirs displace huge populations of people, leaving them homeless and destitute. Ecologically too, they 're in the dog house….Big Dams haven't really lived up to their role as the monuments of Modern Civilization…Monuments are supposed to be timeless , but dams have an all too finite time. They last only as long as it takes Nature to fill them with silt ( as we are already witnessing with the 29 year-old 700 sq kilometer Kaptai lake of the Kaptai dam, one of the largest artificially and inhumanly constructed lake in the region) …. Over the last fifty years, India has spent Rs 87,000 crore on irrigation sector alone to become the third largest dam builder in the world with 3600 big dams, 3300 of which have been built after 1947 and 695 mega dams are under construction. 'Yet there are more drought-prone areas and more flood-prone areas today than there were in 1947. …. (And ) Government has not commissioned a post-project evaluation of a single one of its 3,600 dams. … According to a detailed study of fifty-four Large Dams… the average number of people displaced by a Large Dam in India is 44,182…. N.C. Saxena, Secretary to the Planning Commission, said he thought the number (of displaced persons, mostly by dams) was in the region of fifty million which is more than the population of Gujarat. Almost three times the population of Australia. More than three times the number of refugees the Partition created in India. Ten times the number of Palestinian refugees' Blasting the myth that dams contribute significantly to boost food production, Ms Roy quoted findings of the World Commission on Dams that 'Big Dams account for only twelve percent of India's total food grain production.' And added further:' According to the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies, ten percent of India's total food grain production, that is twenty million tons is lost to rodents and insects because of bad and inadequate storage facilities. We must be the only country in the world that builds dams, uproots communities and submerges forests; in order to feed rats….Our leaders say that we must have nuclear missiles to protect us from the threat of China and Pakistan. But who will protect us from ourselves?.. India does not live in her villages. India dies in her villages. There is hole in the flag and it's bleeding. The article concludes with the observation:' to slow a beast, you break its limbs. To slow a nation, you break its people. You rob them of volition…. Day by day, river by river, forest by forest, mountain by mountain… almost without our knowing it- we are being broken. Big Dams are to a nation's 'Development 'what Nuclear Bombs are to its Military Arsenal. They're both weapons of mass destruction' (Arundhati Roy: The Algebra of Infinite Justice: Penguin Books, 2002, p-47-136.) [16] Naya Diganta, 20 May,2009, p-7 [17] Farraka on a tributary of the River Ganga, is a barrage or low-height 4.5-kilometer irrigation dam, -the longest in the world, is 257 km down stream of this Ganga-turned Padma and a mere eleven miles upstream from Chapai Nawabganj. It was originally intended to divert water from the Ganges into the Hooghly River during the dry season and rescue the Kolkata port 257 km downstream. Commissioned on 4 April, 1974 'experimentally' for 41 days to test the feeder canal, and since then, is in operation without any interruption. The barrage is now raising the possibility that of the Ganges' major tributaries, the Padma and the Bhagirathi, some 20 km downstream from the barrage, while were almost three kms from each other a decade ago, are now fewer than 750 meters apart, thanks to the "engineers' racket," a term coined by the Indian geographer Sunil K Munshi, on the part of irresponsible state and federal governments. It now appears that India will seek to undo the damage with a mammoth US120 billion plan to interlink its rivers, which originate in the Himalaya Mountains, with 30 interlink canal systems that would deliver water to so-called Peninsular India. Farakka thus has become the tip of the ice berg of a vast irrigation plan of India under which 37 rivers of total length 9 thousand km to be interlinked with cannels to irrigate 150 million hectares of cultivable land.
The adverse effects for both the countries are enormous: a large village, (Akheriganj of Bhagabangola,) has already disappeared from the map, with the destruction of 2,766 houses, leaving 23,394 villagers homeless. The changing river channel, which forms the border between India and Bangladesh, has resulted in tension as more than 10,000 hectares of land have shifted from the Bangladesh side to India. The interference with the natural flow of the Padma has already led to anthropogenic and natural upsets in Bangladesh. On
the contrary, the Damodar and Roopnayayan Rivers as a part of the DamodarValleyCorporation hydro project cost the rivers their ability to flush the Hooghly River The Farraka Barrage, thus intended to correct that problem, ended up causing a bigger one .Kapil Bhattacharya, then chief engineer for the West Bengal government, said that the plan to deliver 40,000 cubic fee of water per second to flush the harbor was absurd, and that the designed capacity of the barrage would seldom rise above 27,000 cu.ft/sec. He also warned that the new distribution of silt loads after the construction of the barrage would result in huge floods in West Bengal and Bihar. His prediction came true almost immediately after the barrage began functioning. In case of Farakka, initially there was a five-year water sharing treaty in 1977 which stipulated that Bangladesh would receive at least 63% of the water flow during the dry season which would be more or less 34 thousand cusec. This agreement was arrived at as the water level at the Hardinge Bridge point came down to 65 thousand cusec in 1975 and in the next year (23 March) only to 23,200 cusec. There was a guarantee clause in the 1975 agreement to ensure a minimum quantum of flow. In 1982, the agreement was renewed but without the provision of the guarantee clause. Further, attempts were there for an equitable sharing of water in 1984 and in 1989 but with no tangible result. On 12 December, 1996 Bangladesh PM and her Indian counterpart signed a 30-year treaty that stipulated at least sharing of half of the water flow during the lean season, estimated to around 50,000 cusec . According to the this latest agreement, Bangladesh is supposed to get at least 35,000 cusec water in three trances (11-22 March, 1-10 April, and 21-30 April) while India would get a minimum of 35,000 cusec of water in a similar three trance of ten –days each (21-31 March, 11-31April and 1-10 May). In reality, Bangladesh got about 22.5 thousand cusec less in January, 2009, 19 thousand cusec less in February, about 8.5 thousand cusec less in April, about 25 thousand cusec less in May and, thus in the last 12 installments, she has been deprived of a total of 96 thousand plus cusec, say one lakh cusec of water, by India, consistently failing short in each of the installments. (Naya Diganta, June7, 2009 , p-1, 10) Such is the outcome of the agreement on a single river with India so far , not to speak of the rest 53 still kept out of any agreement, save promises, promises and promises! Because of Farakka, thousand of hectares of cultivable land under the G-K project too has been affected adversely.. Unlike Farakka barrage, however, Tipaimukh will be a mega earth dam, rock-filled with central impervious core. (Dam is the general term for blocking the flow of a river. A barrage is a smaller dam Both create lake/ ponds, may be not more than a few meters deep .Larger projects have built-in turbines to generate electricity. Barrages have sluice gates to control water level of the lake, the excess water in the lake /pond usually flows over the top spill line and, it may be to control the tides also. A weir, is a still lesser fry usually on small rivers and unlike a dam /barrage is bereft of any rear water- hold. Thus dams and barrages/ wiers are essentially the same thing. Thus dams and barrages /weirs are barriers constructed across a river or natural water course for regulated water supply, energy production, irrigation, flood control, etc. In case of barrage, the entire length across the width of the river is provided with gates having their bottom sill near the river bed, building storage behind with height of the gates. Dams have spill way gates near its top level and the water storage in dam are maintained partly by the concrete structure and partly by the gate height. In cases, the number and size of gates is kept adequate to pass their designed food level during the monsoons [18] Karimganj District (area: 1809 Sq.km of which 30% is forest) is located in the Southern tip of Assam and together with Cachar and Hailakandi constitutes the Barak Valley zone in Southern Assam.. Strategically located, the district shares 92 km. of International Border with Bangladesh. Of which 41 km is demarcated by Kushiyara. Karimganj, along with the neighboring district of Cachar demarcates the frontier between the plains of the Padma-Meghna basin and the hilly North-east India. The old name of the Kushiyara near Karimganj town (Bagali) smacks once predominance of Bengali settlements, particularly of Muslims in the area, a fact conveniently ignored during the Radcliff award in 1947. [19] The Daily Inquilab, May 23, 2009. [20] There are already open security posts at seven kilometers intervals along the 99 km stretch on the road to be used for movement of materials required for the construction of the controversial dam. A total of 15 posts of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) are to provide initial security for the dam officials of NEEPCO, the implementing agency. The Union Government is going to spend had Rs 400 crore on security cover, choosing the highest point of the hill for a military station, likely to escalate the present conflict in the region. [21] (Eastern Himalayan Collision Zone with two major earthquakes in 1941, 1947, Indo-Myanmar Subduction zone with 10 earth quakes in 100 years, Upper- Assam-Arunachal zone that made the Assam earthquake of 1950, Shillong Platue and Anam Valley zones that made the Shillong earthquake in 1897 and the Bengal Basin and Tripura-Mizoram Fold belt with two earthquakes: one in 1918 and the other at Catcher in 1980). There have been at least two major earthquakes of 8+ in the Richter scale occurred during the past 50 years. The epicenter of the last earthquake (1957), with a magnitude of 8 was at about 80 km from the dam site in an east-northeast direction.(Debabrata Roy Laifungbham/ Dr. Solbam Ibotomi, Global Bangladesh May 24, 2009 http :// www.Coremasnipur. Org/ [22] The Joint River Commission is a bilateral working group established by India and Bangladesh in the Indo-Bangladeshi Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Peace that was signed on March 19, 1972 and came into being in November, 1972. As per the treaty, the two nations established the commission to work for the common interests and sharing of water resources, irrigation, floods and cyclones control. The studies and reports of the commission contributed to the efforts of resolving the dispute over the Sharing of Ganges Waters, facilitating bilateral agreements in 1975 and 1978 at least to some extent [23] A dam break is a catastrophic failure of a dam which results in the sudden draining of the reservoir and a severe flood wave that causes destruction and in many cases death downstream. While such failures are rare and are not planned they have happened to dams, large and small, from time to time. The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) has identified 164 major dam failures in the period from 1900 to 1965.) [24] Prof. M .Abdur Rab, Bhorer Dak, 24 May, 2009 [25] Ganges-Kobadak Irrigation Project better known as (G-K Project, started in 1954-55, is a large surface irrigation system set up on the right bank of the Ganga covering an area of 197,500 ha, of which 142,000 ha are net irrigable, under 13 upazilas in 2 greater districts: Kushtia, Jessore . Water is pumped from the river Ganges and distributed to the field by gravity. The total lifting capacity of these 15 pumps is 153 cusec. But operations to extract water from the Ganges are made difficult because dry-season water levels are significantly below the level for which the pumps were designed, and up to one million cubic meters of slit has to be dredged annually from the 1,655 km canals, mainly from the main canals (193 km) .The river Ganges and Gorai bound the project area on the north, while Gorai and Madhumati on the east, the Nabaganga on the south, and the Mathabhanga on the west. The objectives were to increase food production, improve cropping patterns, increase cropping intensity, HYV aush and HYV aman in Kharif-I (March to June) and Kharif-II (mid-July to November) through its long canals for distributing water. The project is also aimed at improving the overall drainage system of the area with 971-km long drainage canals and has constructed 228-km long inspection roads, 39 km dam, numerous ridges and culverts to keep the area flood free. Using the irrigation facility, farmers are producing about 0.3 million tons of excess crops every year which is valued at about Tk 2,400 million. [26] These are: Danube, Niger, the Nile, Zaire, Rhine, Zambezi, Amazon, Lake Chad and Mekong. Mekong flows through Laos, Thailand,, China,Campuchia,, Vietnam and Burma (Myanmar). Even in Africa, Zambezi, the fourth largest river system in Africa with eight riparian states settled at a sharing of the water in the following proportion: Zambia 41%, Angola18%, Zimbabwe 16%, Mozambique 12% Malawi 8%, Tanzania 2%, Botswana 1.5% , Namibia 1.5% and the eight states conjointly supports the Zambezi Water Course Commission (ZWC) successfully since 2004. Zambia and Zimbabwe has the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) primarily for joint management of the Kanta dam. It seems that if we suggest for a joint management for Farakka or Tipaimukh, heavens will fall and the topic appears to be taboo even for the Joint River Commission (JRC). Again, as regards Mekong delta river course agreement, most of the contracting parties are poles apart in so far as their political ideology and relationships are concerned. But that could not prevent them to reach a consensus. [27] The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007 and the International Labor Organization, Convention 1969, stipulates that indigenous and tribal peoples shall have the right to decide their own priorities for the process of development as it affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual well-being and emphasized that they shall participate in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of plans.. [28] Dr.Tarek Shamsur. Rehman :Water aggression by India, Amar Desh, 20 May, 2009 [29] Amader Somoy, quoting the Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, June 2, 2009) [30] Rafiqul Azad http//www. The Daily Star.net April 28, 2007. It has been reported that At least 30,000 acres out of which at least 3,000 acres of land from bank erosion of the Surma alone, aggravated by the construction of dams and groins at upstream of the rivers Surma (390-400 km) Borak (900km) and the Kushiyara (115 km) rivers and the Indian people are using those mainly for crop cultivation and housing purposes while the Indian government is constructing barbed-wire fence, roads and observation towers to establish their permanent control.. The Mujib-Indira Treaty of 1974, the international border at the riverside is determined at the mid-stream of the Border Rivers. There are 57 common rivers of which 54 flows from India and though Bangladesh, in accordance with the decision of the Shilchar meeting in India in 2005, requested India to take measure for a joint survey in bordering areas from January 2006 but the request is yet to be complied by the Indian side. e-mail : nazmul.alamt@yahoo.com http://www.meghbarta.org/nws/nw_main_p01b.php?issueId=6§ionId=18&articleId=603 |
