100,000 Trees to Fall: Green Nod for Siyom Hydro Project Inflames Siang Basin Protests

Arunachal Pradesh: Amid escalating protests against mega-dams in the Siang river basin, another massive infrastructure development has cleared a major regulatory hurdle. The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Union Environment Ministry has recommended Stage-I (in-principle) forest clearance for the 1,000-MW Naying Hydroelectric Project in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday.

The green light for the ₹10,369-crore project, which is planned on the Siyom River, a major tributary of the Siang, threatens to intensify an already volatile standoff between indigenous communities and the state government.

Operated by the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO), the run-of-the-river scheme will require the diversion of roughly 470.8 hectares of "unclassed forest" land and the felling of an estimated 1,04,036 trees. Crucially, the FAC itself noted that the target area sits within a "high conservation value zone" encompassing exceptionally dense forest patches.

The regulatory advance comes as central paramilitary forces remain deployed across the East Siang, Siang, and Upper Siang districts to suppress severe grassroots resistance against the even larger 11,200-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP).

Indigenous Adi groups fear the collective hydel push will submerge ancestral lands, ruin local livelihoods, and permanently destroy the river systems central to their cultural heritage.

Condemning the lack of community involvement, Tagori Mize, spokesperson for the Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum (SIFF), stated that local landowners were completely blindsided. “Communities and individual landowners were never informed or consulted about the proposed dam project,” Mize alleged. “Instead, unlawful means are being used to forge majority consent, and the signatures are being obtained by misleading people.”

With the Environmental Impact Assessment identifying potential disruptions to 12 villages, over 400 affected families, and vital aquatic breeding habitats, the stage-I clearance has drawn sharp public criticism. Activists highlight the environmental irony of the proposal, which suggests "compensatory afforestation" roughly 1,700 kilometers away in Madhya Pradesh.

As local landowners continue to reject NEEPCO’s compensation offers, the approval of the Naying dam is poised to further inflame regional unrest.

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