What changed
India has deployed hundreds of additional security personnel in Arunachal Pradesh after protests over the proposed 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project turned violent last week. Police arrested at least 21 people after protesters threw stones and set fire to a police station and an office of the state-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation.
The project is planned on the Siang River, which flows from Tibet into India. Opponents say it could submerge 27 ancestral Adi villages and affect 40 or 50 more.
Why it matters
This is no longer only a dispute about a dam’s engineering or India’s response to China’s upstream plans. It has become a three-way collision between national security, disputed territory and the survival of villages tied to the river.
China announced plans in December 2024 for the world’s largest hydropower dam upstream, prompting fears in New Delhi that control of the river could be used strategically. India disputes China’s claim to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing calls Zangnan. The proposed Indian dam is meant to answer that pressure, but its local opponents see the answer arriving at their own doorstep.
The central tension is blunt: India wants infrastructure in a border region it considers integral to the country, while Adi villagers fear losing the places that define their history. Arunachal Pradesh’s chief minister has said the government will protect national interests while respecting the rights and aspirations of people in the Siang Valley.
The extra forces may calm the immediate unrest, but they do not settle the underlying conflict. The scale and duration of the deployment are unclear, and it is not yet known whether the project will proceed, be delayed or be cancelled.
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