India builds dam over seismic fault.

• Author: Sampat, Payal
• Position: Environmental Intelligence - Tehri Dam - Brief Article

In late November 2001, the Indian government ordered shut the diversion tunnels on the partially completed Tehri Dam, beginning the creation of a giant reservoir on the Bhagirathi River. The dam has been under construction since 1978, and when finished will be the world's seventh highest, at 260 meters. Within days, the rising waters began to flood the 200-year old town of Tehri--which may be completely submerged by late 2002.

In 1980, the project was rejected by the government's own Environmental Appraisal Committee, which found serious flaws in the geological studies and environmental and social assessments conducted for the proposed barrage. Despite repeated expert warnings about the high risk of earthquakes in the Himalayan region where the dam is located, the government's dam-building agency has pressed ahead with construction.

The dam is being built on the edge of the Central Himalayan gap, the fault line that separates India from the rest of the Asian...