Who’s The Big River Daddy?

Uttam Sinha
Jul 10, 2025 | 20:49 IST

India’s not at the kind of hydrological disadvantage in Brahmaputra’s case as Pakistan is in Indus’s. China’s real upstream strength is data. India’s downstream defences have to be science-backed



Calling it a ticking “water bomb”, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu has flagged China’s planned 60 GW mega dam near India’s border, as an existential threat to his state’s tribes and livelihoods. It’s not a new fear in India’s northeast that Beijing’s hydrological ambitions on Yarlung Tsangpo, known as Brahmaputra in India, could turn catastrophic.
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