Protests erupt over Indian dam construction on Brahmaputra
New Delhi: Large-scale dam construction by India on the Brahmaputra river has triggered widespread protests from local indigenous and tribal communities in Northeast India who complain of severe deterioration of the environment and ecosystem along one of Asia’s most ecologically complex and culturally significant river systems.
According to Kashmir Media Service, demonstrators have accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of treating rivers as “bureaucratic conveniences” and local communities as “inconveniences” in its push for infrastructure projects.
Protesters described the relentless construction on the Brahmaputra as “environmental crime dressed up in the guise of development,” saying they are being forced to raise their voices against what they termed “ecological vandalism.”
Local residents, indigenous communities and farmers said their livelihoods, traditions and futures are being “buried under concrete and hyper-nationalist hubris.” They stressed that the Brahmaputra does not belong to Delhi, but to the millions of people who have lived along its banks for millennia.
Activists also highlighted that downstream communities extending into Bangladesh depend on the river’s natural flow and pulse for agriculture, fisheries and daily survival.
“The deterioration of the environment along the Brahmaputra is not collateral damage,” protesters said. “It is the product of a development model that treats nature as an enemy to be conquered rather than a system to be respected.”
They further stated that instead of building sustainable infrastructure, “India is demolishing futures” of river-dependent populations.
