India deploys extra security forces after protests over Siang dam on Chinese border escalate

Originating in Tibet as the Yarlung Zangbo before flowing into Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang, the river has become a point of strategic anxiety for New Delhi following China's December 2024 announcement to construct the world's largest hydropower dam upstream, raising concerns that its rival could weaponise control over the shared waterway.

Hundreds of additional security personnel have been deployed in Arunachal Pradesh after protests against a proposed mega-dam on the Siang river, near the Chinese border, turned violent last week. The project is intended to counter a Chinese hydropower project upstream in Tibet.

Police said 26 people, including five juveniles, had been taken into custody in connection with the violence during an anti-dam bandh in Pasighat on October 23. Eight criminal cases have been registered, while six people have been detained for questioning.

"Forces are being increased in the places where it is required. We do not want any law and order problem," SD Singh Jamwal, police chief of Arunachal Pradesh, told Reuters.

The protests in the Siang Valley, which borders Tibet, escalated into clashes between demonstrators and police. Protesters allegedly set fire to the office of the state-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), attacked a police station and damaged several vehicles. The residences of state BJP president Kaling Moyong and Pasighat West MLA Ninong Ering were also vandalised, along with the office of Adi Bane Kebang, the apex organisation of the Adi community.

Police fired tear gas shells to disperse protesters, who pelted stones. Four women were admitted to the Geku Primary Health Centre after an incident involving tear gas near Geku in Upper Siang district. They were discharged after around two hours of medical observation. Police dismissed social media claims of fatalities.

Anti-dam activist Ebo Mili and youth leader Otul Jerang are among the 26 people taken into custody. The two surrendered to police on October 23 after the bandh turned violent and condemned the violence and vandalism.

The alleged offences include unlawful assembly, rioting, obstruction of public servants, criminal conspiracy and damage to public property. One of the eight cases invokes Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, while the others have been registered under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

A member of the Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum (SIFF) on Monday claimed that Mili and Jerang had begun a hunger strike inside Pasighat jail, alleging they had been falsely implicated in the case. However, East Siang Superintendent of Police Pankaj Lamba denied that the duo were on a hunger strike.

"It is normal to skip food for six-seven hours," Lamba told PTI.

Mili maintained that the bandh was initially peaceful, but tensions escalated following reports of tear gas being used against protesters in Geku.

The 12-hour shutdown was observed across Siang and Upper Siang districts and parts of East Siang, primarily to demand the release of activists arrested during earlier demonstrations.

Indigenous communities fear loss of ancestral villages

The proposed 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, to be developed by the state-run NHPC, has faced opposition from sections of indigenous communities over concerns about displacement, loss of ancestral land and environmental risks.

"We will keep opposing this dam till they cancel it. If it is constructed, 27 of our ancestral villages will be completely submerged. At least 40 or 50 more will be affected," Gegong Jijong of the Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum told Reuters.

Sporadic protests have taken place in the Siang Valley over the past two years. The state government has maintained that the preliminary feasibility report exercise does not amount to approval for construction of the project and has urged affected communities to engage in dialogue.

Proposed dam linked to Chinese hydropower project upstream

The Siang river flows into Arunachal Pradesh from Tibet, where it is known as the Yarlung Zangbo. China announced plans in December 2024 to build the world's largest hydropower dam upstream, triggering fears in New Delhi that its longtime strategic rival could weaponise its control of the river.

The proposed Siang project is intended to counter the Chinese hydropower project upstream. The location of the proposed dam in a border state adds to the strategic significance of the project, even as indigenous communities oppose it over fears of displacement.

China claims Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls Zangnan, as part of southern Tibet. India says the state is an integral and inalienable part of its territory.

Arunachal Pradesh's chief minister, Pema Khandu, has called the Chinese project an existential threat and said the government would protect national interests while respecting the rights and aspirations of the people of Siang Valley.

Chinese researchers have warned that the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, where China is building the world's largest dam at an estimated cost of USD 168 billion, could experience increased runoff and heightened flood risks over the course of this century. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan University used tree-ring width chronologies from the southeastern Tibetan Plateau to reconstruct the river's runoff history from 1325 to 2020.

They combined the reconstruction with climate data to create a model that projected that river runoff would increase under future climate scenarios, along with a possible rise in high-runoff events such as floods.

"These results provide a long-term perspective on hydroclimatic variability in the Yarlung Tsangpo River and a scientific basis for assessing future water-resource risks," the team said in a paper published in the journal China Science Bulletin on October 8, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

Yarlung Tsangpo is the name used in Tibet for the river that flows into India as the Brahmaputra.