| The Teesta River • Teesta originating from the Tso Lhamo Lake in North Sikkim, runs through West Bengal before entering Bangladesh. • Teesta River is a major right-bank tributary of the Brahmaputra known as Jamuna in Bangladesh. |
- A landslide occurred in Sikkim, damaging the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) infrastructure at its Teesta-5 hydropower station in Gangtok.
- It is the second natural disaster to impact a hydropower project along the Teesta River.
- Last year, a deluge from the South Lhonak glacier in North Sikkim washed away the Chungthang dam, critical to the Teesta-3 power station (1200 MW), which was once the largest in the state, is now supplying only a tenth of its original capacity.
- Reports suggest, the Teesta-3 project opted for a concrete-faced rock-fill dam instead of a more robust concrete gravity dam to cut costs, which contributed to its destruction.
- The 510 MW Teesta-5 project has also been rendered non-functional since the glacial lake outburst.
Dig Deeper: Read about Environmental impact assessments of Hydroelectric projects on fragile Himalayan rivers.
