Latest news with #EboMili
The Hindu
03-08-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Stop selling China mega dam bogey to push Siang project: Arunachal Pradesh activists to Centre
Activists and farmers in Arunachal Pradesh have asked the Centre not to sell the bogey of the world's largest dam pursued by China on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet to push a proposed 11,500 megawatt hydroelectric project on the Siang River. The Yarlung Tsangpo is the upstream of the Siang in Arunachal Pradesh, which meets two more rivers in Assam downstream to flow as the Brahmaputra. The Medog Hydropower Station planned by China in Tibet is expected to generate 60,000 MW of electricity, three times more than what the country's Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River does. India and Bangladesh have expressed concerns about the potential downstream impact of the Tibet project, although Beijing claims it is a clean energy initiative. 'Instead of creating fear over the Medog project, the government of India should consult with its Chinese counterpart to get an accurate status of the project before pushing the SUMP through,' Ebo Mili, a lawyer and anti-dam activist from Arunachal Pradesh's Dibang Valley, told journalists in New Delhi on Saturday (August 2, 2025). Members of the Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum (SIFF) and their legal advisors organised the press conference along with anti-dam activists from Uttarakhand. SUMP expands to the (11,500 MW) Siang Upper Multi-purpose Project, which the activists said would submerge 27 villages across and displace 1,50,000 members of the Adi tribe, apart from destroying swathes of forest, farmland, and cultural heritage sites such as Kekar Moying, a landmark where the pre-independence Anglo-Abor War took place. Underscoring the absence of a water treaty with China, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu described the Medog project as a ticking 'time bomb' that could be misused to destroy the State's Siang belt. He defended the SUMP as a much-needed 'defensive measure' against the sudden release of water by China from the Medog project. China does not have a water treaty with any of the 13 countries it borders. Lamok Padun, the SIFF's president, said most villagers in the Siang belt are opposed to the SUMP, but the Arunachal Pradesh Government was hell-bent on pushing the project. He said one of the strategies being employed is to pressure the village chiefs into inking a deal with the government for a pre-feasibility report (PFR). China's mega dam will be 'water bomb': Arunachal MP 'Village heads are being suspended for opposing the SUMP, protestors and members of the SIFF are being detained and arrested arbitrarily, leaders of the SIFF and Adi Students' Union are being criminalised through false charges, and pro-PFR signatures of villagers in the submergence zone are being forged,' he said. Bhanu Tatak, the SIFF's legal advisor, said the Union and State Governments have been militarising the entire Siang region to prevent people from organising protests. 'The government is resorting to violent means to gag us,' she said. The National Hydropower Corporation has been assigned to conduct the PFR for the SUMP, estimated to cost ₹1.13 lakh crore under heavy security cover. In December 2024, more than 350 environmentalists, journalists, scientists and civil society organisations submitted a letter to President Droupadi Murmu, urging her to direct the government to withdraw security forces from the area. The Adi people inhabiting the Siang belt rever the Siang River as 'Ane', which means 'mother', and consider damming it a sacrilege.
The Hindu
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Rights groups back anti-dam protests in Arunachal Pradesh
At least three rights groups have expressed their support for the ongoing protests against a proposed mega dam in the Siang region of Arunachal Pradesh. These organisations – Manipur's Centre for Research and Advocacy, Sikkim's Affected Citizens of Teesta, and Tripura's Borok People's Human Rights Organisation – have also condemned the Arunachal Pradesh government for booking lawyer-activist Ebo Mili. A first information report was registered against him following a complaint by P.K. Thungon, the Deputy Commissioner of the Siang district, for allegedly provoking the Adi community villagers to resist the security forces at the project site to facilitate a survey and the pre-feasibility report. Also Read | Arunachal groups protest NHPC's mega dam site survey Villagers of central Arunachal Pradesh's Siang, Upper Siang, and West Siang districts have been protesting the security build-up at the site for the proposed 11,000 megawatt Siang Upper Multi-purpose Hydroelectric Project (SUMP) since May 22. The project entails a 300-metre-high dam on the Siang River, downstream of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, where China is planning a 60,000 MW project. Apart from fearing displacement and an ecological disaster, the villagers are against the dam as they revere the river as 'Ane', meaning 'mother' in the language of the Adi indigenous community. 'It is highly unfortunate that the government of India pursue the survey for SUMP without the free, prior, and informed consent of the Adi people of Arunachal Pradesh. The government of Arunachal Pradesh's notification on December 6, 2024, to deploy Central Armed Police Forces in the Siang district to facilitate the pre-feasibility study of the Siang dam and subsequent deployment violates indigenous peoples' rights,' the three rights bodies said. 'The deployment of security forces and militarisation of the dam site in May 2025, despite the opposition and call for dialogue by the affected Adi people, undermines all semblance of democracy. The Adi tribe is worried about the potential impacts of the SUMP on their land, ecology, forest, livelihood, culture, identity, involuntary displacement, increased disasters, and influx of non-Indigenous populations, downstream impacts and survival threats to their future,' the organisations said. They said the SUMP would cause significant downstream effects such as widespread flooding in Assam, apart from adversely affecting the Adi people and their land. 'The disaster risk posed by the dam is further heightened by the region's high seismicity and the worsening effects of climate change, including rapid glacier melting, deforestation, landslides, floods in the Himalayan region,' the organisations said. It cited the October 2023 glacial lake outburst disaster in Sikkim and the 2011 earthquake that damaged the 1,200 MW Teesta III and other dams in the Himalayan State as cases in point. The three organisations urged the Centre to hold meaningful dialogue with the Adi people who would be affected by the SUMP and drop the charges against Mr. Mili.
