India, Feb. 18 -- On December 25, 2024, China's Xinhua News Agency reported Beijing's approval for the construction of a hydropower project (HPP) in the lower reaches of River Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet. This is the river whose lower course is known as the Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and, after a confluence with two other major tributaries, as the Brahmaputra in Assam.

Since then, Indian and global media have produced hundreds of experts elaborating on the issue of a 'dam', though the Chinese report did not specify what type of hydropower plant (or plants) will be built or when construction will start.

It has generally been assumed that this will be a single dam, the largest in the world, which could produce three times more energy than ...