Liu Baokang, engineer with the academy's remote-sensing and ecological evaluation center, said several lakes in the nature reserve have been overflowing since 2011 after receiving an increasing volume of melted snow from glaciers on the plateau, known as the "roof of the world."
Liu said the center's research shows that the lakes have become a threat to the railway's roadbed and roads on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway as well as important oil pipelines, cables and power facilities that run through the region.
Sitting 4,600 meters above sea level, the 45,000 square km Hol Xil nature reserve is China's largest unpopulated area and is home to wild yaks and endangered Tibetan antelope. Major lakes in the reserve, namely Zhuonai Lake, Qusay Lake and a salt lake, are all holding water at historically high levels.
Following a dyke breach in 2011, water has flowed from Zhuonai Lake and fed into Qusay Lake. The latter's overflow has resulted in swelling of the salt lake downstream, which has more than tripled its 2011 size, endangering the rail line.
Wang Xinwen, a spokesman with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Co., said the company has "prepared a comprehensive set of contingency plans to cope with an emergency." But he declined to give details of measures to be taken if the rail track were to become submerged in lake water....
A train on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, shot by Henry Chen, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
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