Who is Katon Moyong, the ‘Abor Man’ leading the fight against Siang dam?

“If you want to build a dam on the Siang, you have to exterminate the entire Adi community.”

The words of Katon Moyong, an engineer-turned-activist from Arunachal Pradesh, have brought the long-running opposition to a mega hydropower project on the Siang river into sharp focus.

Popularly known as ‘Abor Man’, Moyong has emerged as one of the prominent voices of the anti-dam movement, arguing that the proposed project threatens the land, identity and way of life of the indigenous Adi community.

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At a press conference at the Arunachal Press Club in Itanagar on November 5, Moyong delivered an uncompromising message to the Centre and the state government over the proposed 11,200-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP). Rejecting the state government's offer for talks, he said decades of opposition had made the community's position clear.

“Pema Khandu, the time for discussion is over. No dam means no dam. If you build dams in smaller tributaries, our community will help you. But you have to exterminate Adi people if you want to build a dam on Siang,” he said.

Who is Katon Moyong?

Moyong is an environmental engineering graduate from Lovely Professional University and a leading representative of the youth wing of the Siang Indigenous Farmers Forum (SIFF), which works to protect the land rights of communities in the Siang region.

His opposition to the project is rooted in his community's deep historical and cultural relationship with the river. The Adi people revere the Siang as ‘Mother Siang’ or Ane Siang, and Moyong has often spoken about how the river is inseparable from their ancestry and identity.

He has said he can trace his forefathers' names back 37 generations, with their migrations and settlements closely linked to the river. For him, the proposed dam is not merely an infrastructure project but a threat to a way of life shaped by the Siang over generations.

Also read: Arunachal's anti-dam campaign hardens as protesters snub Khandu’s dialogue offer

Moyong has also stressed that his opposition is specific to building a dam on the Siang and does not extend to hydropower projects on smaller tributaries.

A movement spanning generations

Opposition to dams on the Siang is not new. Moyong traces the community's resistance to 1979, when an earlier proposal was presented as a flood-mitigation measure. He said traditional village councils had opposed the plan even then.

According to him, successive governments have continued to pursue projects on the river despite sustained resistance from the local population. He has accused both Congress and BJP governments at the Centre and in Arunachal Pradesh of prioritising hydropower interests over the concerns of indigenous communities.

“They sold all rivers from Myanmar to Bhutan,” he alleged, accusing political leaders of allowing hydropower interests to influence decisions.

Recalling the history of the dam proposals, Moyong also criticised the administration of former chief minister Dorjee Khandu (2007-2011)—father of current CM Pema Khandu—holding it responsible for the state’s current financial difficulties linked to hydropower development.

In 2025, Moyong undertook an awareness and signature campaign across 56 villages in the Siang belt that could be affected by the proposed project. He held meetings in community halls to explain its possible ecological and social consequences, collected signatures from residents and documented the gatherings. He carries the petitions as evidence of what he describes as widespread grassroots opposition.

Also read: Siang Valley on edge as arrests, CAPF deployment fail to deter anti-dam protesters

The movement has since expanded beyond individual villages, with Moyong calling for all 60 traditional village councils to be included in decisions concerning the river and its future.

The Siang project

The proposed 11,200-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project is being pursued by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) as a major hydropower and water-storage project on the Siang river.

The Centre has also framed the project as a strategic necessity in view of China's upstream dam-building plans on the Yarlung Tsangpo, which flows into India as the Siang. Concerns have been raised that China could use upstream dams to regulate or divert water, with potential consequences for downstream regions.

Moyong, however, has rejected this national security argument, calling it a narrative used to overcome public resistance. He said the justification for the project had shifted over the years, from flood control to strategic concerns over China's water projects.

“India was born in 1947 and China in 1949. We have been living here much before that,” he said, asserting the community's historical connection to the land and river.

From Delhi detention to rejecting talks

Moyong came into wider national focus after he was detained by Delhi Police on October 31, along with other student leaders, during a protest outside Arunachal Bhawan in New Delhi. The demonstration drew attention to the growing opposition to the project and concerns over indigenous land rights and the deployment of security forces in the Siang Valley.

Also read: 'Siang dam project won’t be imposed on residents', says Arunachal CM Pema Khandu

After his release, the Pema Khandu-led Arunachal Pradesh government invited anti-dam leaders for talks. But Moyong rejected the offer at his November 5 press conference, arguing that 47 years of opposition should leave little room for further negotiation.

He demanded that the government stop treating the issue as a matter that could be settled through discussions with a few representatives, insisting that the concerns of all traditional village councils must be heard.