(TibetanReview.net, Jan10’25) –More than three days after an up to 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the Mt Everest county of Dingri in southern Tibet’s Shigatse city, it is still not clear how many people are missing. While the official death toll remains unchanged at 126, the number of those reported injured has nearly doubled to 337, according to China’s official Global Times newspaper, cited by Reuters Jan 10. The earthquake has triggered two avalanches in Bhutan which have mercifully caused no damages.
The report said rescuers had widened their search today for survivors near the foothills of the Himalayas, despite dwindling hopes for survival. Experts have been cited as saying those trapped under the rubble were likely to have died of hypothermia, possibly leading to a rise in the number of the dead.
Over 27,200 houses have been damaged, of which 3,612 have collapsed so far, the report cited Li Xiuwu, head of the region’s department of housing and urban-rural development, as saying at a news conference Jan 9 afternoon in Shigatse.
Most of the deaths and destructions have taken place in villages in and around Tsogo Township, the earthquake’s epicentre, and where the search and rescue has been conducted so far.
He has said the severe damage to houses in Dingri county was mainly because of the high seismic magnitude with high intensity and shallow epicentre, and high concentration of houses.
Meanwhile, in Bhutan, the earthquake has triggered two avalanches from the Table Mountain above the Bechung Glacier in Lunana, reported kuenselonline.com Jan 9.
The report said that while the glacier’s gentle slope absorbed the avalanches and prevented them from reaching Bechung Glacial Lake, such events remain potential triggers for dangerous Glacial Lake Outburst Floods.
The report added that Gasa, the nearest dzongkhag (district) to the epicentre, experienced the maximum intensity of four on the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale, which measures how strongly people feel the tremors. MMI is measured on a scale of 1 to 12.
China earlier said Jan 7 that the earthquake had caused no damage to any dams or reservoirs in the country, which raises the possibility that such damage is possible in earthquake prone Himalayas.
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China in December approved the construction of a dam, stated to be the world’s biggest infrastructure project costing $137 billion, raising concerns in riparian states India and Bangladesh.
On Jan 6, Beijing reiterated its plan to go ahead with the planned mega dam, located in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region along a tectonic plate boundary where earthquakes occur frequently, saying that the project has gone through rigorous scientific verification and will not have any negative impact on downstream countries, reported the PTI news agency Jan 7.
The reported noted that the month before, Fan Xiao, a geologist based in China’s Sichuan province, had warned against Beijing’s plan to construct the controversial mega dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, citing its location in a geologically unstable biodiversity hotspot that could cause “irreparable” environmental damage.
Speaking to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, Fan had said the dam’s location was in a rare biodiversity hotspot in a geologically unstable area, which could potentially lead to irreparable damage to the environment.
“I’m afraid the construction of the proposed hydropower project would incur unprecedented huge costs and face enormous risks,” he was quoted as saying.