‘We Will Die For Our Lands’: Villagers in Arunachal’s Siang District Protest Against Mega Dam Plan

Bengaluru: “No dam, go away” – that is the refrain that echoed in the village of Beging in Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang district, against the proposed nearly 12,000 megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP). Since May 23, villagers have gone on an indefinite dharna (sit-in protest) against the deployment of armed forces in the area to implement the first phase of the project – a study for pre-feasibility report – at the village. Protesters also burnt down a hanging bridge to prevent the army from entering the village. 

During the protest, villagers also clarified their two immediate demands: that the government remove the armed forces deployed in the area in three days; and that it also remove the drilling machines brought to the area for the pre-feasibility study.

Local communities’ main concerns about the hydropower project – which is being implemented by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) – include displacement, loss of homes and agricultural lands, as well as the environmental impacts, such as the loss of rich biodiversity that the area is home to. 

To make matters worse, the Upper Siang project – set to be India’s largest hydropower project, if it is built – is also proposed in a seismically-active area.

A burning hanging bridge

While villagers who would be affected by the project have been protesting against the proposed hydropower project for several years now, the latest protests are a result of armed forces being deployed in the area since May 21 for the first stage of the implementation of the project, in which the NHPC is to prepare a pre-feasibility report for the project.

Sources told The Wire that around 100 army personnel – belonging to the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) – were deployed in the districts of Siang, Upper Siang and East Siang for the NHPC to conduct its pre-feasibility report. 

On May 23, in the village of Beging in Siang district – the epicentre of the protest – villagers took out a march in protest against the deployment. Spearheaded by the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF), they once again reinstated their demands that the government not build a dam in the area, starting with the removal of armed forces and the drilling machines brought in by NHPC to conduct the study.

“We will die for our lands,” villagers could be heard telling army personnel deployed in the area.

Villagers in Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh resist army deployment. Photo: Nith Paron

The protestors also burnt a hanging bridge on the same day, in an effort to prevent the armed forces from reaching Beging village. Although it was meant to be a peaceful protest, emotions were high and some angry villagers burnt the bridge, Deccan Herald quoted Nith Paron, a SIFF youth wing leader, as saying. He added that people have been now convinced to not resort to violence in any form and engage in only peaceful agitations.

A letter submitted to the deputy commissioner of Siang district by the SIFF on May 23 stated that they have initiated an “indefinite dharna”, in protest against the deployment of armed personnel for the initiation of the pre-feasibility report for the SUMP. 

The letter, accessed by The Wire, makes three clear requirements. Firstly, that the state remove all CAPF personnel from the districts of Siang, Upper Siang and East Siang, where they have been currently deployed. Secondly, that the drilling machine brought to Beging for the survey be removed in four days. And thirdly, that the government provide an assurance that “no further forceful activity related to the PFR [pre-feasibility report] will be carried out without the free, prior and informed consent of the local communities.”

The letter specified that failure to meet these demands by the local communities will result in them ‘intensifying their democratic protest’.

Long-standing concerns

In mid December last year, villagers of Geku, Reiw and Parong in the Upper Siang districts had taken out marches protesting against the SUMP. The protests, similar to the latest one, were also in reaction to a directive by the Arunachal Pradesh government to deploy central and state armed forces in the area to implement the project.

While the government has claimed that the SUMP is a counter to the mega dam being built by China just upstream of the Indian border on the Siang river before it enters India, local communities are still worried and have repeatedly raised a number of concerns about the project.

Villagers worry that nearly 27 villages will be displaced, and their lands (either in whole or partly) will be acquired and/or submerged for the project. This will result in the loss of peoples’ homes and their agricultural lands. Agriculture is the mainstay of people in the area.

Secondly, the way that district authorities, the state government and the Union government have pushed forward with the initiation of the project, without taking the local people into confidence is of concern. Army deployment has become a regular phenomenon, and local communities have been resisting this actively.

Army personnel at Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh. Photo: Nith Paron

“The whole scenario has been very sad and unjust for our people,” said Katon Moyong, a resident of Pasighat who arrived at Beging on May 23 to join the protest. Noting that the protest has been going on for decades against the dam, he said that the last two-three years have been particularly worrying.

“We have been demanding for no PFR for the Siang Upper Multipurpose Dam. Hiding the agenda, the district administration, the state and central governments have pushed through the system and brought all these equipment to Beging village to do a survey for land acquisition for the dam. Our people do not agree…if the public says no, it is no. The government does not have the right to enforce it,” he said.

Another major concern the people have raised is that apart from the area’s rich biodiversity, the Siang river also holds high cultural significance for the indigenous communities in the area. A dam could endanger this in many ways, including by loss of access to traditional fishing grounds, among others.

Moyong said that by deploying the army, the state and central governments are sending a “clear message” that they will still enforce the construction of the SUMP with or without the public’s agreement.

“I came here [to be part of the proteste] so that we can save our lands…save our mountains and rivers from this sheer humiliation against us - putting a 12,000 MW dam in our lands without our permission, without our consent. That is a punch in our hearts,” he said.

Moyong said that the protest is a “warning to the leaders behind it – Arunachal chief minister Pema Khandu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Amit Shah” to “back off from this so that our people can live peacefully”. 

“We are not against dams, but we are against large dams like the SUMP,” he said.

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