Arunachal villagers protest security put up for proposed dam

Villagers of Siang, East Siang and Upper Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh, to be affected by the 11,500 MW Siang Upper hydroelectric project, protesting security buildup for a pre-feasibility study on May 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

GUWAHATI

Villagers from three districts of central Arunachal Pradesh, on Friday (May 23, 2025), launched an indefinite sit-in at a site where security forces personnel have been deployed to facilitate the pre-feasibility report (PFR) and survey for a proposed 11,000 MW hydroelectric project.

The protesters are residents of villages in the Siang, Upper Siang and West Siang districts likely to be affected if the 11,000 megawatt Siang Upper Multi-Purpose Project (SUMP), entailing a 300-metre-high dam, comes up on the Siang River. Apart from the perceived ecological disaster, the villagers are against the dam as they refer to the river as ‘Ane’, meaning ‘mother’ in the language of the Adi indigenous community.

After confronting the Central armed police and State police personnel on Thursday, the villagers converged at Beging under the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF) to say no to any activity that would lead to the mega-dam. Located in the Siang district, Begging is the survey site for the hydroelectric project pursued by the NHPC.

In a message to the district heads in December 2024, the State’s Undersecretary (Home) sought accommodation and logistics facilities at several villages around the project site besides Begging and the district headquarters — Pasighat (East Siang), Boleng (Siang), and Yingkiong (Upper Siang). The message specified five companies of the central armed police forces near Begging and Parong villages.

The protesters, mostly women, shouted slogans and held placards conveying their opposition to the mega project. “We cannot allow PFR for a project that will rob us of our ancestral land and livelihood, and, without PFR, land acquisition cannot happen,” a SIFF member said.

He cited the 2,880 MW Dibang Valley hydroelectric project, where dam-building companies acquired land after the PFR was conducted.

The SIFF and affiliate organisations demanded the immediate withdrawal of the armed security personnel and a peaceful dialogue between the government representatives and the families who would be affected by the project.

The villagers said they have been opposing dams under the banner of the SIFF since the early 1980s.

“This forceful survey is a blatant violation of our fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. We condemn this arbitrary abuse of power, which has profoundly hurt our sentiments for which we seek immediate intervention and remedy from government authorities and civil society organisations concerned,” the SIFF’s Bhanu Tatak and Nith Paron said in a statement.

The opposition to the SUMP started brewing after the NHPC wrote to the Arunachal Pradesh government in July 2024, seeking round-the-clock security at the proposed sites for core drilling works and geophysical studies.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu backed the project, citing concerns over China’s plan to construct a massive project on the Yarlung Tsangpo to generate 60,000 MW of electricity. Yarlung Tsangpo is the Tibetan stretch of the Siang, which becomes the Brahmaputra in Assam downstream after meeting two other rivers.

Mr. Khandu said projects such as the SUMP were necessary to counter the Chinese projects. He said Beijing, not a signatory to the International Water Conventions, could divert water from multiple reservoirs to drier parts of China.

“In such a scenario, the volume of water in Siang will reduce drastically, so much so that one will be able to cross it on foot during winters,” he said, also underscoring the possibility of China suddenly releasing water from its dams to cause devastation in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.