Adi Activist Rejects Further Talks on India's Siang Dam, Saying Village Consent Must Come First
ITANAGAR — Opposition by Indigenous communities in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh to the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) has hardened. Katon Mayong, an environmental engineer and activist from the Adi community, told a news conference at the Arunachal Press Club in the state capital Itanagar on November 5 that 'discussion time is over': the Adi people have opposed a dam on the main stem of the Siang River for generations, would help build dams on its tributaries instead, and a main-stem dam, he said, could be built only if 'the entire Adi community' were exterminated.
The Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, with a planned capacity of 11,200 megawatts, is being pursued by India's central government through the state-run NHPC as a combined hydropower, water-storage and strategic project. It has raised fears of submerged villages, displacement, and the loss of ancestral land and livelihoods, and its location in a seismically active region has prompted dam-safety questions. Mayong said any community organisation must first obtain the permission of all 60 concerned villages before holding talks with the government on the dam. He also alleged that the government had tried a 'divide and rule' approach to get village memorandums of understanding signed, without success, saying '99% are not accepting this dam.' Those claims are the activist side's account.
Opposition intensified in October: during protests in late September and again on October 23, protesters set fire to an NHPC office and a police station in Pasighat, and vehicles and property linked to political leaders were damaged, prompting additional security deployments.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has refuted claims of forced displacement, describing reports that families would be forced from their homes and land taken without consent as false. He said the state government remains committed to dialogue, listening and transparency, while emphasising that those who choose violence are not above the law. The Arunachal Indigenous Tribes Forum has proposed a peace committee to facilitate talks between the government and opponents.
(Source: Asian News International)
Source: Asian News International
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：印度阿鲁纳恰尔邦 Pasighat 一带的桑朗河（资料照片）。CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Siang River near Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, India (file photo). CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
