Hands Off Siang River! No To The Siang Hydroelectric Project!

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Siang District, Northeast India in resisting the NHPC’s (National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) further attempts at completely seizing the Siang River for the realization of its Upper Siang Hydroelectric Project– an 11,000MW mega dam project to be built on Siang River.

Last August 31, a protest action erupted in the district, led by farmers, students, and Indigenous Peoples to oppose the forceful surveying being conducted by NHPC. Locals have voiced out that these moves are not done in consultation with locals, and is an utter violation of Indigenous People’s right to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) under the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP); to which the Indian government is a signatory to.

If built, the main dam under the project is expected to be the largest in the Indian-subcontinent. The project is being looked at to rival China’s hydropower projects in Tsangpo– a river bordering Tibet, China and Arunachal Pradesh, India. Clearly, Indigenous peoples are being caught in the midst of the crossfire between powers competing for dominance and profiteering.

The Siang River, a trans-boundary river crossing through Southwest China, Northeast India, and Bangladesh, is essential in keeping the ecosystem in the region in balance. The threat of a mega-hydropower project endangers the ecosystem and wildlife in the area.

Furthermore, 300 Adi Indigenous Peoples are being threatened of displacement to give way for the project. Siang River is vital in the day to day life of the Adi people, a place where they rely on for their livelihood and cultural practices.

People’s organizations have since condemned these actions by the NHPCP through a series of statements and letters. Siang’s Deputy Commissioner P.N. Thungon has since issued an order barring government employees and officials from participating in any form of protest– and branded these actions as “anti-government” and “anti-development”. A clear violation of the Indian peoples right to assembly, these efforts to prohibit the right to protest with no remorse and zero consideration for the Indigenous People’s rights and freedoms.

In a rejection letter submitted to the NHPC, the Siang Indigenous Farmers Forum asserts that “...without consent of the stakeholders and dam-affected people, there should not be any survey or any related activities to the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project”

The North East Human Rights organization retorted the Deputy Commissioner’s order against protest participation saying, “This is a clear misuse of power, aimed at intimidating and preventing the innocent public and community leaders from exercising their constitutional rights”

Even behind the obvious agenda of milking profit and muscle-flexing, India’s neoliberal ideologues make concerted efforts of hawking these projects as necessary to national development and “security” from China’s dominance in the region. The Indian government claims that this project seeks for energy transition towards non-coal and non-fossil fuel resources. We find it preposterous how false climate solutions like big hydropower projects and mega dams, which are built on glaring Indigenous Peoples and land rights violations, are parroted as clean, renewable and sustainable energy sources and key to the region’s prosperity and development.

The International IPMSDL enjoins our Adi brothers and sisters, the people of Siang District, in resisting the NHPC and the Indian governments outright violation of Indigenous Peoples rights. We cannot sit idly by and watch as corrupt politicians and businessmen slobber over our natural resources and drive us away from our ancestral lands and homes without any remorse.

Reference:

Beverly Longid & Jiten Yumnam
Int’l Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination & Liberation
Co-Convenor

info@ipmsdl.org

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