Arunachal anti-dam stir. NHPC office vandalised, police vehicles burnt. Riot-Control Forces Airlifted To Arunachal Pradesh After Anti-Dam Protests.
Violent anti-dam protests have intensified across Arunaxmchal Pradesh with unrest spreading from the Siang basin to the Subansiri valley. Local indigenous communities and youth groups are resisting multi-billion dollar mega-hydropower projects over severe environmental, cultural, and displacement concerns.
PASIGHAT, ITANAGAR. A 12-hour bandh against a proposed hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Subansiri district turned violent Monday, with mobs damaging vehicles and NHPC equipment and wounding two security personnel as anti-dam protests spread from Siang basin to Subansiri valley, report Kangkan Kalita and Joken Ete.
The latest flashpoint was Daporijo town, 220km west of Pasighat by road. NHPC equipment, a company vehicle and two police vehicles were damaged during the bandh called by All Tagin Students’ Union and other organisations against Menga dam.
It is a part of the proposed 1,605MW Subansiri Upper Hydroelectric Project. Police conducted a flag march in Daporijo and appealed for peace.
The bandh began at 5 am over opposition to the proposed Menga dam and an alleged attempt to detain ATSU president Tadak Pakba.
Backed by student unions and community groups from the Subansiri basin, the agitation grew out of fears that the project would threaten their land, livelihoods, and future.
Earlier, Pasighat recorded widespread arson, vandalism and clashes with security forces when protesters laid siege to the East Siang district headquarters from Friday night to early Saturday over the proposed 11,200 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), with its main reservoir planned near Geku village, about 35km downstream from Upper Siang district headquarters Yingkiong.
The Siang flows from Tibet into the ancestral land of the Adi community inhabiting Siang, Upper Siang and East Siang districts, while Upper Subansiri is home to the Tagin community.
The Adi and Tagin people are closely related.Tension continued in Upper Siang, where protesters demanded the release of people arrested for the violence and four activists placed under preventive detention.
They also demanded the withdrawal of central security forces and an immediate halt to the pre-feasibility survey for the project.