ABSTRACT
This chapter brings out the two main contentions around the project in the Dibang Basin in Arunachal Pradesh. First, the justification of the project on grounds of economic viability as the displacement is considered to be negligible. Second, the fears of the Idu Mishmi community, the primary inhabitants in the region, that the influx of outsiders into the region because of dam building will lead to a demographic imbalance in the Dibang Basin. The Dibang Basin is a thinly populated region comprising of the Lower Dibang Valley and Dibang Valley districts, whose primary inhabitants are the Idu Mishmi people. The onslaught of several hydropower projects on this river, revered by Idu Mishmis, stimulated a debate about the right to ancestral land, identity and culture. The local Idu Mishmi people were worried that the community's resistance against the Dibang dam could be labelled as a movement instigated by the Maoists.
