Tribesmen in India’s northeast protest mega-dam plan to counter China

On a shot transportation ringed by misty mountains, the aerial rang with fiery speeches arsenic an Indigenous assemblage protested against a planned mega-dam, India’s latest determination successful its contention with China implicit Himalayan water.

India says the projected caller operation could counteract China’s operation of a apt record-breaking dam upstream successful Tibet by stockpiling h2o and guarding against the merchandise of weaponised torrents.

But for those astatine 1 of the imaginable sites for what would beryllium India’s largest dam, the task feels similar a decease sentence.

“We volition combat till the extremity of time,” said Tapir Jamoh, a nonmigratory of the thatch-hut colony of Riew, raising a bow loaded with a poison-tipped arrow successful a motion of defiance against the authorities. “We volition not fto a dam beryllium built.”

Jamoh’s homeland of the Adi radical lies successful the far-flung northeastern country of India, separated from Tibet and Myanmar by soaring, snowy peaks.

Proposed blueprints amusement India considering the tract successful Arunachal Pradesh for a monolithic retention reservoir, adjacent to 4 cardinal Olympic-sized swimming pools, down a 280-metre (918-foot) precocious dam.

Men from the Adi people gathered successful a location successful Riew colony [Arun Sankar/AFP]

The task comes arsenic China presses up with the $167bn Yaxia task upstream of Riew connected the stream known successful India arsenic the Siang, and successful Tibet arsenic the Yarlung Tsangpo.

China’s program includes 5 hydroelectric powerfulness stations that could nutrient 3 times much energy than its immense Three Gorges dam, the world’s largest powerfulness station, though different details stay scant.

Beijing says it volition person nary “negative impact” downstream.

“China has ne'er had, and volition ne'er have, immoderate volition to usage cross-border hydropower projects connected rivers to harm the interests of downstream countries oregon coerce them,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the AFP quality agency.

The country astir the colony of Riew is 1 of the shortlisted sites for India’s effect mega-dam, a task that radical similar Jamoh consciousness is the much contiguous menace to them. “If the stream is dammed, we besides cease to exist,” said the 69-year-old Jamoh. “Because it is from the Siang that we gully our individuality and culture,” helium added.

Despite a thaw betwixt New Delhi and Beijing, the 2 astir populous nations person aggregate areas of disputed borderline manned by tens of thousands of troops, and India has made nary concealed of its concerns. The stream is simply a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra, and Indian officials fearfulness China could usage its dam arsenic a power pat to make deadly droughts oregon merchandise a “water bomb” downstream.

China rejects that, saying “the hype surrounding the Yaxia Hydropower Project arsenic a ‘water bomb’ is groundless and malicious”.

India’s dam could nutrient 11,200-11,600 megawatts of hydropower, making it the country’s astir almighty and helping to standard backmost emissions from its coal-dependent energy grid. The dam would make a elephantine reservoir of 9.2 cardinal cubic metres, but the nonstop country flooded depends connected its last location.

Begging colony faces the imaginable hazard of submersion if the hydroelectric mega-dam is built [Arun Sankar/AFP]

The Adi people, similar Jamoh, see the stream ineffable and beryllium connected its life-giving waters for their lush lands dotted with orangish and jackfruit trees.

They fearfulness the dam volition drown their world. “We are children of the Siang,” said Jamoh, who was the erstwhile headman of Riew, earlier being forced to discontinue by section authorities for protesting against the dam.

The dam, residents are convinced, would drown dozens of villages. “If they physique a immense dam, the Adi assemblage volition vanish from the representation of the world,” said Likeng Libang, from Yingkiong, a municipality that adjacent officials accidental is apt to beryllium wholly underwater.

“The Adi volition beryllium wholly displaced,” helium added. “We volition beryllium nowhere.”

NHPC, India’s nationalist hydroelectricity utility, did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

India’s “dam-for-dam” attack whitethorn beryllium counterproductive, said Anamika Barua, a transboundary h2o governance adept astatine the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. “Diplomatic engagement, transparent water-sharing agreements, and concern successful cooperative stream basin absorption would output much durable and equitable outcomes than reactive infrastructure building,” she said.

Building mega-dams successful earthquake-prone Arunachal Pradesh is besides risky, said Barua. But India’s operation thrust of monolithic dams suggests it volition not backmost down connected this project. Two different large dams overcame section resistance.

“If the dam indispensable beryllium built, I anticipation I dice earlier that time comes,” said bow-and-arrow-wielding Jamoh.