Key Facts

An alliance of downstream indigenous communities across Assam and Arunachal Pradesh issued a ten-day ultimatum to the Union Ministry of Power and state authorities, demanding comprehensive flood mitigation, ecological compensation, and rehabilitation linked to the 2,880 MW Dibang Multipurpose Project. The ₹31,875-crore mega-dam, being executed by NHPC in Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Dibang Valley district, is designed to be the country's highest concrete gravity dam (278 metres). Downstream residents in Sadiya and Dhemaji districts of Assam voiced grave concerns that unseasonal water releases and altered river hydrology will exacerbate recurrent seasonal flooding, submerge agricultural riverine islands, and endanger the fragile biodiversity of the Brahmaputra river basin.

GK Context

The Brahmaputra river system originates in southwestern Tibet as the Yarlung Tsangpo, enters Arunachal Pradesh near Namcha Barwa as the Siang, and merges with the Dibang and Lohit rivers near Sadiya in Assam to form the mighty Brahmaputra. The Dibang project is considered strategically significant for India's clean energy target of 500 GW non-fossil capacity by 2030, but environmental impact assessments have sparked controversies regarding downstream socio-ecological vulnerabilities, seismic risks in the Himalayan folded zone, and indigenous tribal land rights under the Sixth Schedule and Forest Rights Act, 2006.