Reject move for 2,880 MW hydro project, tribal rights group tells Arunachal government

If completed, it will be India’s largest and the world’s tallest concrete gravity dam standing 288 metres tall.

A New Delhi-based tribal rights group has asked the Arunachal Pradesh government to reject a move by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) that paved the way for a 2,880 MW hydropower project.

In February, the Centre approved the Dibang Multipurpose Project (MPP) on the Dibang River to be developed by the National Hydro Power Corporation Limited at an estimated investment of ₹1,600 crore. If completed, it will be India’s largest and the world’s tallest concrete gravity dam standing 288 metres tall.

The project would not be in the interest of the indigenous communities of the State’s Lower Dibang Valley district, the Indigenous Rights Advocacy Centre (IRAC) said in a letter to Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Chief Secretary Dharmendra on Wednesday.

The IRAC urged them to “outrightly reject” the recommendation of the MoEFCC’s Forest Advisory Committee for establishing a community reserve on the right bank of the project’s proposed reservoir.

In September 2014, the committee advised the State government to initiate the process of declaring a large swathe between the Dibang and Siang rivers as a national park.

The stage-II of final approval of the Centre for the diversion of 4,577.84 hectare of forest land was granted on March 12, 2020, based on the submission of the State government that the process of declaration of a national park has been initiated.

But on August 17, 2022, the State government wrote to the committee about its inability to provide the land for the national park as “the legal status of the land in question is unclassed forest or community forest on which the local people are enjoying customary rights since time immemorial”.