Key facts
- India deployed hundreds of additional security personnel to Arunachal Pradesh.
- Protests over a planned mega-dam turned violent last week, resulting in at least 21 arrests.
- Protesters set fire to a police station and an office of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation.
- The proposed dam is the 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project.
- Villagers fear the dam will submerge 27 ancestral villages.
- China announced plans in December 2024 to build a large hydropower dam upstream on the Yarlung Zangbo river.
India has deployed hundreds of additional security personnel in its northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh following violent clashes between protesters and police last week. The protests, centered in the Siang Valley, oppose the construction of the 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project by the state-run National Hydroelectric Power Corporation. Villagers fear the dam will submerge ancestral lands. The situation is exacerbated by China's announced plans in December 2024 to build a massive hydropower dam upstream on the Yarlung Zangbo river, which flows into India as the Siang, raising concerns in New Delhi about potential water weaponization.