The Nyamjang Chu, or Nyashang Chu () is a cross-border perennial river that originates in the Shannan Prefecture of Tibet and flows into the

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

state of India, joining the

Tawang Chu Tawang Chu (Tawang river) is the main river of the Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh, India. The entire district may be regarded as the basin of the Tawang Chu river. In addition, two south-flowing rivers from Tibet, viz., the Tsona Chu and ...

river just before it enters

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

. The Nyamjang Chu valley has provided the traditional communication route between

Tawang Tawang is a town and administrative headquarter of Tawang district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It lies on NH-13 section of Trans-Arunachal Highway. The town was once the headquarter of the Tawang Tract, which is now divided into ...

and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. The valley near the town of Zemithang in the Tawang district, called the Pangchen Valley, is known for its serene beauty and forms one of the wintering locations for the

black-necked crane The black-necked crane (''Grus nigricollis'') is a medium-sized crane (bird), crane in Asia that breeds on the Tibetan Plateau and remote parts of India and Bhutan. It is long with a wingspan, and it weighs . It is whitish-gray, with a black h ...

. The China–India border in the valley has been contested between the two countries since the 1950s, resulting in a clash at the Namka Chu in 1962 and a standoff at the Sumdorong Chu in 1986.

Course

The Nyamjang Chu river originates in the snow-clad peaks of the eastern Himalayas, north of Taga in the Chudromo township of the

Tsona County Tsona City (, zh, s=错那市), formerly Tsona County, is a county-level city in Shannan Prefecture in the southeastern part of the Tibet region of China. Tsona means "The face of the ara Yumcolake" in Tibetan. It lies immediately to the nort ...

, at an elevation of . Frederick Bailey and

Henry Morshead Henry Treise Morshead (23 November 1882 – 17 May 1931) was an English surveyor, explorer and mountaineer. He is remembered for several achievements – with Frederick Marshman Bailey, Frederick Bailey he explored the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Ca ...

, explored the region in 1913. They crossed into the valley of Nyamjang Chu from that of Nye Chu via the Hor La pass. They give the name of the village as Gyao, which appears to be an older name of Taga. The land at this elevation was only good for grazing. The shepherds lit sheep-dung fires around the campsites to protect their flocks from the wolves. From this location, Nyamjang Chu flows southwards for about in Tibet, passing by several towns such as Chudromo, Dongkar, Gongri, Kyipa, Marmang and Le. South of Le (also spelt Lei and Lai), the river enters India at a location called Khinzemane at an elevation of . The stream of Sumdorong Chu from the left and the river of Namka Chu from the right join the river in this area. The border in this area has been disputed between India and China. The course of the river in India is through a steep gorge lined by dense mixed forest. The valley widens near Zemithang, where it is called the Pangchen valley. The streams of Sumta Chu (from the right) and Taktsang Chu (from the left) join Nyamjang Chu in this valley. The river flows mostly southwards in India for 40 km and joins the west-flowing

near Lumla. After the confluence, Tawang Chu enters Bhutan within a short distance where it merges with Kulong Chu to form the

Manas River The Manas River (pron: �mʌnəs, known in Bhutan as the Drangme Chhu, is a transboundary river in the Himalayan foothills between southern Bhutan, India, and China. It is the largest of Bhutan's four major river systems, with the other three ...

, a major tributary of

Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Southwestern China, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh. It is known as Brahmaputra or Luit in Assamese, Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, and ...

Flora and fauna

The Zemithang valley is one of the wintering locations for the

, a vulnerable species of which only 4,000 are believed to be alive as of 1996.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{citation , author=NJC Hydropower Limited , title=EIA study for Nyamjangchhu Hydroelectric Project , publisher=Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India , url=http://moef.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/EIA-NJC.pdf , year=2017

External links

The course of the Nyamjang Chu
marked on OpenStreetMap

(photograph by Amar Grover), AWL Images, retrieved 10 July 2020. * Ranju Dodum
Lax policies cause of concern for conservation
'ranjuwrites' (blog), 13 April 2017. Rivers of Tibet Rivers of Arunachal Pradesh Shannan, Tibet Tawang district China–India border