An international seminar focusing on the growing crises resulting from both climate change and the hundreds of dams being built on Tibet’s rivers was held on Sunday at the India International Center in New Delhi. The Students for a Free Tibet organized seminar focused on two Tibetan rivers, the Yarlung Tsangpo, known in India as the Brahmaputra, and the Dzachu, known in South East Asia as the Mekong.
The Director of SFT-India said that Tibet's rivers feed 2 billion people in East and South East Asia, and that with the, “speakers from Bangladesh, Thailand, India and Tibet, we aim to build a network of civil society and environment stakeholders to collectively call for saving Tibet's rivers through this seminar."
The presenters at the event included Prof. Milab Chand Sharma, an expert on Himalayan glaciers, Mekong River Activist Tanasak Phosrikun from Thailand, Expert on the Brahmaputra river Shahidul Alam from Bangladesh, research scholar Zamlha Tempa Gyaltsen from Dharamsala based Tibet Policy Institute, and Founder-Activist of "Tibet's Rivers, Asia's Lifeline" campaign, Ms. Jyotsana George.
The over 200 participants of the seminar were comprised of representatives from various foreign missions in the Indian capital, and students from Delhi University and Jawaharlal University.