Itanagar: Mobile internet services have been suspended across Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Siang district amid escalating protests against the proposed 11,200-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), as a 36-hour bandh called by local organisations began on Monday, November 2.
The shutdown, which began at 5 am, covers Upper Siang, Siang and East Siang districts and was called by the Siang Indigenous Farmers Forum (SIFF) and the SUMP Affected Area Youth Association (SAAYA), with support from student unions and community-based organisations.
The organisations are demanding the release of activists detained during protests against the proposed hydropower project and an immediate halt to pre-feasibility report (PFR) survey activities. They have also opposed the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel in project-affected areas.
In a letter to the Bogum Bokang Welfare Society (BBWS), SAAYA said an emergency executive meeting held on October 29, attended by representatives of affected villages, had unanimously decided to organise the bandh in coordination with SIFF and other local organisations.
The association described the arrests of protesters as an attempt to silence indigenous communities and called on residents to participate in what it termed a peaceful and democratic movement.
Opposition to SUMP centres on concerns over the potential submergence of villages, loss of agricultural land and forests, displacement and disruption of traditional livelihoods. Reports indicate that 27 villages could face submergence, while several dozen others may experience the project’s wider impacts.
The Siang river holds particular significance for the Adi indigenous community, supporting agriculture and sustaining traditional livelihoods, as well as cultural and ancestral connections. Community groups have repeatedly expressed concern that a large dam could fundamentally alter the ecosystem and their relationship with the river, which they refer to as ‘Ane Siang’.
The 11.2 GW project has faced opposition ever since it was proposed by government think tank NITI Aayog in 2017. But the Central as well as Arunachal government, including Arunchal Chief Minister Pema Khandu has routinely maintained that SUMP is a necessary countermeasure to China’s upstream dams, especially the mega 66-GW Medog hydropower project on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, the upper course of river Siang.
Tensions in the region escalated in October as resistance to the proposed preliminary surveys intensified. Protesters objected to the deployment of security personnel to facilitate the exercise, maintaining that affected communities had not given their consent.
The state government has maintained that the ongoing exercise is only a preliminary feasibility assessment and does not amount to a final decision to construct the dam.
In August 2024, the Centre informed Parliament that SUMP was at the preliminary investigation stage and that construction would require the necessary environmental clearances.
However, the Adi community from across the valley of Siang have maintained that they are opposed to the big dam on the river as well as the PFR survey exercises.