Villagers of Siang river belt in Arunachal Pradesh demonstrating against a proposed mega hydropower dam.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
More than 350 individuals, civil society and environmental groups across the country have urged President Droupadi Murmu to withdraw paramilitary forces deployed in Arunachal Pradesh to “forcefully carry out” surveys for a mega hydropower project.
Led by the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF), hundreds of villagers in Siang river belt have been protesting the “militarisation” of areas where feasibility studies would be carried out for the proposed 12,500 MW Siang Upper Multi-purpose Project (SUMP).
“The deployment that is meant to facilitate a pre-feasibility survey for the SUMP has met with peaceful protests in villages of the Siang Valley in the past week. Expressing solidarity with the indigenous populations of the region, the submission to the President draws attention to the fact that this will be India’s largest hydropower project,” a statement bearing the signatures of 351 individuals and representatives of various organisations said.
The statement issued by the People for Himalaya and Youth For Himalaya said the SUMP has been a raging controversy in Arunachal Pradesh for years given the opposition of the Adi tribe inhabiting one of India’s most important Himalayan biodiversity hotspots.
“We stand in complete solidarity with the SIFF that has been making submissions to the government and carrying out peaceful and democratic protests against the construction of the mega hydropower dam. It is disturbing that the State and Central governments have turned around on its promise made a few months ago that no activity of the project shall be initiated without the consent of the people,” the statement said.
On Thursday, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu reiterated that the project would not be pursued if the people are against it but underscored the importance of the SUMP as an insurance against the impact of a 60,000 MW project China has approved on the Yarlung Tsangpo, the upstream of Siang river in Tibet.
The letter to the President highlighted the hazardous nature of hydropower dams in the Himalayan region with some examples. “In the past few years, many parts of the Western Himalayas have seen an unprecedented rise in the frequency and intensity of climatic events like floods, glacial lake outbursts, cloudbursts, landslides, sinking land, and avalanches… In 2023, the Teesta III dam was destroyed by a glacial lake outburst in Sikkim. And this year in Himachal Pradesh, the Malana dam burst as it was hit by a sudden flood from upstream,” it read.
“In all these events, not just hydropower infrastructure worth hundreds of crores were destroyed, even public infrastructures and private properties including houses, farms and fields that are downstream of the dam got swept away. The flood and landslide-related casualties are also on the rise in the Himalayan region in the past few years,” the letter said, citing scientific studies to stress the fragility of the region.
Calling for a review of India’s hydropower plans in the Himalayas, the petition said the NHPC’s 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydropower Project was an example of “denting the public exchequer” by undertaking the project without necessary geological risk assessment or disaster potential assessment.
The signatories demanded that the trust and faith of the indigenous population in constitutional democracy be maintained through the use of democratic consultations and processes of the consent of the villagers rather than threat, force, and intimidation.
Published – December 21, 2024 03:28 am IST
