Arunachal CM tells Siang dam protesters no decision without consultation and consent

On 2 November 2026, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu wrote an open letter to members of the Adi community opposing the proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), an 11,200 MW hydropower and water-storage project on the Siang river. He said neither the Centre nor the State has decided to build the dam, that the Pre-Feasibility Report (PFR) now under preparation is only an initial assessment to establish basic feasibility and a factual basis for further technical study, not a final decision, and that no decision will be taken without detailed public consultation and the consent of affected people in line with the law. He called claims of forced eviction and land-taking without consent false, promised "open dialogue, transparency and meaningful public consultation", and warned that violence, threats, bandhs and blockades could not provide solutions and that those taking the law into their own hands would be dealt with according to the law. The letter came as several organisations held demonstrations during a 36-hour bandh in Upper Siang district.

Opposition has grown through the autumn. Sections of the Adi community, especially in the areas likely to be affected, fear submergence of ancestral villages, displacement, loss of farmland, forests and livelihoods, damage to their way of life, and dam safety in a seismically active region. Protests turned violent in late September and again on 23 October, when an NHPC office and a police station in Pasighat were set on fire; Khandu met legislators and Adi representatives separately on 25 October. The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee has demanded that the project be scrapped and said prior consent of affected people is essential. The Centre declared SUMP a National Project on 7 February 2008, one of 16 such projects. It is still at the pre-feasibility stage; if found viable it would still need a Social Impact Assessment, an Environmental Impact Assessment and a Detailed Project Report before construction. Its planned live storage is about 9.2 billion cubic metres.

The government's case rests on China. On 19 July 2025, China began building a dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo (as the Brahmaputra is called in Tibet) in Medog County, about 40 km from the Indian border, without consulting India. The Medog project is planned at about 60 GW with five power stations. Khandu says nearly 65% of the Siang's water originates in China, leaving the valley exposed to sudden high flows with little warning and to scarcity in dry winters, and that SUMP "could be one of the options" to be studied scientifically for maintaining ecological flows in the Siang and the Brahmaputra. India's External Affairs Ministry has asked China for transparency and consultation with downstream countries. The dispute pits a strategic and water-security argument against indigenous land rights and ecological risk in one of the world's most seismically active mountain belts.