India deploys extra forces after protests over dam on Chinese border escalate

India deployed hundreds of security personnel to Arunachal Pradesh's Siang Valley by October 27, 2026, following violent clashes over the planned 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project. Protesters set fire to a police station and a National Hydroelectric Power Corporation office, resulting in 21 arrests. India planned the mega-dam to counter China's upstream Yarlung Zangbo project, but local Adi tribal villagers strongly oppose it, asserting that the dam will submerge 27 ancestral villages.

Security deployment and violent dam protests

• ▪Arunachal Pradesh police chief SD Singh Jamwal stated on October 27, 2026, that security forces are being deployed to necessary areas in Arunachal Pradesh's Siang Valley to prevent law and order problems
• ▪India deployed hundreds of additional security personnel to Arunachal Pradesh's Siang Valley by October 27, 2026, after violent clashes erupted over a proposed mega-dam project
• ▪Police fired tear gas shells and arrested at least 21 people during violent protests over the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project in Arunachal Pradesh's Siang Valley during the week preceding October 27, 2026
• ▪Youth protesters in Arunachal Pradesh's Siang Valley pelted stones and set fire to a police station and a National Hydroelectric Power Corporation office during clashes the week before October 27, 2026

Local opposition and impact on Adi villages

• ▪Sporadic protests against the proposed 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project have occurred in Arunachal Pradesh's Siang Valley over the past two years
• ▪Gegong Jijong of the Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum stated that constructing the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project would submerge 27 ancestral Adi villages and affect 40 to 50 others

Strategic response to China's upstream dam

• ▪Arunachal Pradesh's chief minister called China's upstream hydropower project an existential threat while committing to defend national interests and respect Siang Valley residents' rights
• ▪India proposed constructing the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project to counter China's plans, announced in December 2024, to build the world's largest hydropower dam upstream on the Yarlung Zangbo river

Territorial dispute over Arunachal Pradesh

• ▪India maintains that the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of its national territory
• ▪China claims the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet and refers to the territory as Zangnan