One body found; 82 still buried in Tibet mudslide

BEIJING: Rescuers digging for victims of a massive landslide at a gold mining site in mountainous Tibet found one body yesterday. The fate of the other victims was unknown.
The workers were buried early Friday when about 2 million cubic meters (2.6 million cubic yards) of mud, rock and debris swept through the mine in Gyama village in Maizhokunggar.
More than 3,000 rescuers equipped with sniffer dogs and excavators were scouring yesterday the high-altitude, mountainous area, but search efforts were slowed after snow started to fall early in the afternoon, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Xinhua said the body was retrieved nearly 36 hours after the landslide slammed through the area and buried the workers, who were believed to have been sleeping in their tents.
The disaster has spotlighted the extensive mining activities on the Tibetan plateau and sparked questions about whether mining activities have been excessive and destroyed the region’s fragile ecosystem. Criticisms, however, only flashed through China’s social media yesterday before they were scrubbed off or blocked from public view by censors.
Beijing says the cause of the disaster is yet to be fully investigated, although state media say the mudslide was caused by a “natural disaster,” without giving specifics.
Chinese government has been encouraging development of mining and other industries in long-isolated Tibet as a way to promote its economic growth and raise living standards. The region has abundant deposits of copper, chromium, bauxite and other precious minerals and metals, and is one of fast-growing China’s last frontiers.
Tibet remains among China’s poorest regions despite producing a large share of its minerals. A key source of anti-Chinese anger is complaints by local residents that they get little of the wealth extracted by government companies, most of which flows to distant Beijing.
Wangchuktseten, a Tibetan scholar at Northwest University of Nationalities in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, said he was most worried about the environment. “The Tibetan plateau is considered the lungs of Asia,” he said. “Those short-sighted mining activities chase after quick benefits but ignore the environment for future generations.”
State media said that two of the buried workers are Tibetans, and that two are women.