Strategic Framing vs. Practical Risks: The ~11,200 MW Upper Siang project is increasingly justified as a geostrategic buffer against China’s upstream Yarlung Tsangpo dam, but its defensive value is limited by long construction timelines, reservoir management uncertainties, and vulnerability during the building phase.

Severe Ecological, Seismic, and Climate Hazards: Located in a highly seismically active and ecologically rich Himalayan region, the project risks major forest inundation, biodiversity loss, and catastrophic failure from earthquakes, landslides, or glacial lake outburst floods, as illustrated by the 2023 Teesta III disaster.

Local Opposition and Need for Independent Scrutiny: Adi communities face displacement of villages and cultural loss, with protests against survey work; the article argues construction should pause pending a comprehensive, independent basin-wide assessment and genuine free prior consent rather than treating national security as a justification to override concerns.

India’s proposed Upper Siang Multipurpose Project is no longer being discussed merely as a hydropower project. It is increasingly being framed as a geostrategic safeguard.

The roughly 11,200-megawatt project in Arunachal Pradesh is expected to generate electricity, moderate floods and store water on the Siang—the principal Indian channel of the Brahmaputra. But its strategic purpose is increasingly difficult to separate from China’s construction of a much larger hydropower project upstream on the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet. Indian officials argue that a massive reservoir on the Siang could protect the country against either the diversion of water during the dry season or a sudden release during periods of high flow.

That concern should not be dismissed entirely. China’s upstream plans are of legitimate consequence to India, Bangladesh and every community dependent on the Brahmaputra basin. Beijing’s assurances that its project will not harm downstream countries cannot simply be taken at face value. But neither should New Delhi’s.

The question is not whether India has reason to worry about what China is building upstream. As a matter of precaution, it has to. The question is whether constructing another Himalayan mega-dam, in one........

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