"Arunachal Pradesh: Tensions in Siang Valley as armed forces deployed to conduct dam survey", 22 May 2025

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Tensions escalated in Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang district on Thursday after the Central Armed Police Forces were deployed near the site of the proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project. The personnel were deployed to ensure that a survey for India’s largest hydroelectric power project on the river Siang could be carried out.. ..Residents of the region told ..the personnel have been deployed in Boleng, Beging and Geku in the Siang Valley. The Siang river flows into Arunachal Pradesh from Tibet, and is the main tributary of the Brahmaputra. The river is the site of the proposed 11,000 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, touted to be India’s largest dam.

..Residents of the region have been opposing the project for several years. Members of the Adi tribe, who live in the Siang basin, claim that the project poses a threat to their lands and their way of life. The Adi Students’ Union ..also condemned the deployment, calling it a “draconian activity”. ..urged the state government to engage in “constructive dialogue with the affected families”, listen to their concerns and “work collectively towards a solution that acknowledges their rights and perspectives”.

.. The dam was meant to counter the threat posed by Chinese hydropower projects being developed on the Yarlung Tsangpo river upstream ..the Chinese government, which is not signatory to the international water conventions, “intends to divert water from the multiple water reservoirs to be created under the project to dry regions of Tibet and elsewhere”, leading to a fall in the volume of water in the Siang.

The Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum, a collective of agriculturists from the Adi community that has been heading protests, estimates that 40 villages along the Siang river – in Siang and Upper Siang districts – would be affected because of the proposed dam.