Itanagar (AsiaNews) - Two seemingly separate incidents that occurred weeks apart are causing unrest in Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian state bordering China.
On the one hand, clashes between Indian and Chinese forces have broken out along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which divides the two countries. On the other hand, protests have turned violent in Pasighat against a mega-dam on the Siang River that the Indian government is promoting as a strategic response to a Chinese dam on the Upper course of the Brahmaputra.
“In the past few days, a situation arose where a face-off happened at several locations in Arunachal, and it still continues,” said Shatrujeet Kapur, director general of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in charge of the ill-defined LAC. Kapur did not say how many sites were affected.
According to government sources quoted by The Hindu newspaper, an Indian patrol came face to face with Chinese soldiers in July, near the Maja operational base; both sides withdrew after a brief verbal clash, but the Chinese returned in greater numbers a few days later, about 6-7 kilometres inside what India considers its side of the LAC.
Kapur stressed the need to invest in drones and anti-drone systems, as well as underground shelters at border outposts.
China responded on Monday, through Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun, who said that “China abides by the relevant agreements and common understandings reached between the two countries", conducts routine border patrols and management, and remains in contact with India's military. He expressed hope that New Delhi would take “concrete steps” to maintain peace on the border.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs, for its part, referred the details to the defence ministry, limiting itself to noting that the situation on the border “gets disturbed from time to time when Chinese forces diverge from established patrolling patterns.”
The latest incident comes after a period of easing tensions between the two Asian giants. On 25 August , the special representatives on the border issue held the 25th round of talks in Beijing, while Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the BRICS summit hosted by India in September.
In the Indian state, the chairman of the main local political party, the People's Party of Arunachal, Nabam Vivek, has called on the government to start talks with Beijing to reassure the residents of the border villages.
A party commission of inquiry, which had visited Taksing on 10 July, complained about the progressive loss of access to traditional grazing and hunting areas and the presence of Chinese troops near some Indian patrol sites.
Siang vs. Medog
Against this backdrop, India is involved in the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), a storage dam on the Siang River, the main tributary of the Brahmaputra, which enters Arunachal from Tibet,
Proposed in 2017 and entrusted to the state-owned company National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC),the projectwas presented from the outset as the largestof its kindin the country.
Its output is expected to reach 11,500 megawatts at a cost of US$ 13.2 billion. The reservoir would contain about nine billion cubic metres of water, which would cover up to 27 villages.
The project accelerated after China approved in December 2024 the Medog power plant on the Yarlung Tsangpo River (the upper course of the Brahmaputra in Tibet), a 60 gigawatt plant whose construction began in July 2025.
For the Indian government, the Medog is a “water bomb” and the SUMP a “strategic necessity”, because it could absorb sudden releases from the Chinese dam, protect areas downstream from flooding, and reintegrate theflowof the Siang if Beijing withholds its waters in case of drought.
A 2022 report by an inter-ministerial technical committee referred to it as a buffer against floods, even in the event the Chinese basin collapses.
Experts are more cautious.
Himanshu Thakkar, a coordinator with the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, notes that India does not have credible information on Medog; while Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, a visiting associate fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi, suggests that the two dams are meant more as a way to mark strategic sovereignty than produce energy.
Both would be located in one of the regions with the highest seismic risk on the planet. In 1950 an earthquake above 8 devastated the region killing at least 4,800 people.
For its part, the Yarlung Tsangpo contributes only 14-15 per cent to the Brahmaputra once it flows into India.
The resistance of the Adi community
in India, mostly ethnic Adi residents in Siang and Upper Siang districts are leading the opposition to ther government’s project, fearful that they might lose their ancestral lands and villages to the dam.
The Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum (SIFF) claims that more than 100,000 ethnic Adi people could be left without land; for example, in Parong, village chief Tarok Siram explained that 43 families in his village would have their homes submerged.
For years, local communities have prevented the NHPC from completing pre-feasibility studies; in July 2023, SIFF filed a complaint with the police claiming that the surveys in Parong had been carried out at dawn and without consent.
Tensions rose again in recent months.
On 14 September, hundreds of agents and paramilitaries were deployed to Uggeng and Komkar, two of the three sites identified for the dam, while residents blocked roads to prevent the pre-feasibility report (PFR).
On 30 September, protests turned violent during a visit by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu. On 4 October, police charged protesters in Uggeng, activists reported.
Similarly,India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargedBhanu Tatak, SIFF's legal advisor, for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act(FCRA).
According to the agency, the activist received more 1,760,000 rupees from foreign organisations and individuals without the required permits, funds used to support the protests. Tatak has rejected the accusations.
Pasighat, 23 October
The breaking point came on 23 October. After a march in Pasighat on 20 October, and despite a ban, and a 24-hour sit-in, SIFF and other organisations declared a 12-hour strike in East Siang, Siang and Upper Siang districts.
The strike unfolded largely peacefully, the chief minister’s office said, but after it ended, a group of youths blocked the Pasighat-Boleng road.
Police authorities reported that about 200 to 300 people threw stones at its officers and at a magistrate while tear gas was used; protesters instead reported explosions followed by stone throwing by both sides. The clashes continued until 3.30 am.
An NHPC office and part of a police station were set on fire, the headquarters of an Adi organisation vandalised, and the homes of two lawmakers, and the local leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, were looted.
The next day, 24 October, the Union Home Ministry dispatched by plane two Rapid Action Force companies (about 250 men) from Navi Mumbai to an area that already hosts some Central Reserve Police Force bases.
On the same day, activist Ebo Mili and youth leader Otul Jerang surrendered to police, condemning the violence: for Jerang, who had participated in the peaceful sit-in, what happened “was completely contrary to our movement’s ideology and objectives”, which is to stop the project in its early phase.
The state government said instead that the dam will be built only after studies are completed; with the pre-feasibility report followed by the social and environmental impact assessment.
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