It’s a shame that monks and nuns, who normally confine themselves to matters within their monasteries, have to come out on the streets and protest, because their age-old monasteries are in danger of being swallowed up by greed masquerading as ‘national interest’.

In a shocking incident six people have lost their lives while scores have been  injured as protest engulfed the town of Tawang after Buddhist monks and nuns, along with hundreds of local residents, demonstrated in Tawang town of Arunachal Pradesh on Monday demanding release of Lama Lobsang Gyatso.

Public protests against the construction of dams in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh have been going on for some years now. However, on May 2, things took a deadly turn, with two protesters losing their lives in police firing and 10 others reportedly seriously injured. By mid-afternoon, prohibitory orders under Section 144 were clamped on Tawang town and the army was called in to stage a flag march.

But where are the visuals on national TV? Where is the debate? We’re talking about heritage buildings as well as minority institutions.

The Buddhist Monks and general public have been opposing the construction of the  740 MW hydel project on the Tawang basin by NHPC . The proposed project will submerge the entire area where exist tiny Buddhist Monasteries which are centuries old. These monasteries and gompas have treasures of the Budhist Religion.

Lama Lobsang Gyatso was arrested in connection with an anti-corruption protest recently. Lama Lobsang Gyatso, an anti-dam activist  was arrested on April 28 following his remarks questioning the silence of  the Abbot of the Tawang Monastery Guru Tulku Rimpoche.

According to the reports, the situation turned violent when the mob tried to burn the police station. Police firstly had resorted cane charge on the mob and then firing.

The protestors say that they planned nothing of the kind. The gate of the police station became wobbly due to the tremendous press of protesters, and that’s when the police panicked.

In the police firing incident, at least four protesters killed and several others injured. The injured persons were rushed to the nearest hospital.

BACKGROUND

Tawang is the last Indian district bordering China This  2085 square km patch had experienced a threat to the life and property of its residents in 1962 when the Chinese army came trooping in. Since 2011, Tawang, which otherwise attracts attention for being an important seat of Tibetan Buddhism, has been witness to public protests against the state government’s decision to set up multiple dams across the district. The protests are being driven by environmental and religious concerns, and by the sheer inability of the hydel projects to generate promised results.

Reportedly, 13 of the over 150 hydel projects planned by the state since 2005 are in Tawang. To stall this spree of dam construction, people from the Monpa community joined hands with local Buddhist monks in 2011 to form the Save Mon Region Federation (SMRF).

On April 7, this year  the SMRF saw its first significant achievement. In response to its petition filed in 2012, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) suspended the environment clearance granted by the Union environment ministry for the Rs. 6,400 crore Nyamjang Chhu hydropower project in Tawang’s Zemingthang area. The NGT noted that the project – promoted by the Noida-based steel conglomerate LNJ Bhilwara Group – did not consider its impact on the habitat of the endangered black-necked crane, which is endemic to the region. The bird is rated “vulnerable” in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s list of endangered species and is listed in schedule 1 of the Wildlife (Prohibition) Act 1972.

SMRF general secretary Lama Lobsang Gyatso said, “The NGT’s decision to suspend work on the project has led those with vested interest in the state to suddenly look at us as a powerful enemy.” This past week, Gyatso was arrested twice for reasons he said are “linked to not only the NGT decision but also our plan to take legal recourse for other hydel projects.”

Now most intelligent people  know that it isn’t very wise   huge hydel dams on the rather unstable Himalayas. Such projects  come at a huge, unsustainable cost. But who’s listening?  What sort of a turn this entire protest will take is another matter altogether.

Waiting and watching!

  Arunachal Pradesh, Buddhist, feature, naked greed, tawang