The Sikkim flash flood disaster is a warning to Arunachal Pradesh, feels anti-dam activist Ebo Mili.

The Itanagar-based activist advocate fears a similar fate awaits the frontier state if it pushes its policy of mega dams to harness Arunachal Pradesh’s huge hydroelectric potential.

The Arunachal Pradesh government had on August 12 signed memoranda of agreements (MOAs) with central government PSUs to develop 12 stalled hydroelectric projects with a cumulative installed capacity to generate 11,523 MW despite opposition by activists, including Mili.

The activist, who was detained by the police in Itanagar while staging a peaceful protest with a colleague outside the venue where the MOAs were being signed on August 12, said Sikkim is a “man-made” disaster and a “warning” to the BJP-led Arunachal Pradesh government to “revisit” its policy of backing big dams at the “cost of the environment and the indigenous communities”.

“Sikkim should be a warning bell for us (Arunachal Pradesh). We have a topography and weather similar to Sikkim.... What we want to say is that no dam project should be undertaken without proper assessment and consultation with local people. We want the government to rectify its position on dams before it is too late. We can have dams less than 100 MW but, that too, should be based on local requirements and without affecting the ecology,” Mili said.