BANGKOK, Thailand (25 September 2024) – We, the undersigned individuals and organisations, are deeply concerned over the grave human rights and environmental rights violations committed by the Chhujung Khola Hydropower Project, constructed by hydropower company Sangrila Urja Pvt Ltd in Lungba Samba, Nepal.

The project’s construction and road-building activities will clear customary pasture lands and forests in the Bhotkhola Rural Municipality in Sankhuwasabha District, Lungba Samba.

The livelihoods of Lhomi Singsa and Bhote indigenous communities–including nomadic yak herders–in Chyamtang, Thudam, and Ridak villages have depended on these lands for generations.

Sangrila Urja Pvt Ltd, a Nepali private hydropower company, has reportedly fabricated information in its environmental impact assessment (EIA), forged signatures during a public hearing, and bypassed proper and meaningful consultations with communities.

Development projects must respect the rights of indigenous peoples as guaranteed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (ILO 169) as adopted and ratified by the Government of Nepal. Likewise, Nepal must abide by its own Constitution, which provides for people’s fundamental right to participate in cultural life and the protection of heritage.

The Government of Nepal must stop the illegal encroachment of hydropower and other energy and infrastructure projects in the country as these are negatively impacting people’s lives, livelihoods, and fundamental right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.

The need to protect Lungba Samba’s biocultural heritage

Lungba Samba, the ancestral domain of Lhomi Singsa and Bhote communities, is an important biocultural site that connects neighbouring national parks and conservation areas in the eastern Himalayas. It is home to endangered species like the red panda, Himalayan black bear, snow leopard, blue sheep, Himalayan goral, Himalayan monal, and musk deer, among others.

Within the region is the Chhujung River, which is one of the many rivers affected by hydropower projects in Nepal. It is sacred to the faith and ways of life of Lhomi Singsa and Bhote peoples—legally recognised as Adivasi Janajati under the National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN) Act, 2002—who are some of the most marginalised indigenous communities in the country.

Indigenous communities need their lands for collecting and trading medicinal herbs and other non-timber forest products as well as for rearing livestock like yaks, cattle, and goats. They also honour their ancestral lands, perform rituals for safe passage around their holy rivers and forests, and respect the spirits residing in them.

Given the devastating consequences of the hydropower project to both the people and the environment, protecting fragile biological corridors and heritage sites like the Lungba Samba landscape remains a must.

Falsehoods, environmental damages, and human rights violations

Lhomi Singsa and Bhote communities covered by the Chhujung Khola Hydropower project area have been left in the dark right from the start.

The EIA report by the Sangrila Urja Pvt Ltd for the said hydropower project is riddled with omissions, falsehoods, and inaccuracies.

The company is taking about 1,800 hectares of project area, which is 90 times more land than the 20 hectares initially proposed in the EIA. Apart from the Chhujung River, the project will also affect the Chhunjam River, which is not mentioned in the EIA. Both rivers are tributaries of the Arun River, which is vital to the people’s lives and sustenance. It runs through the Lungba Samba Pass between Makalu and Kanchenjunga protected areas.

The EIA claims to only cut down around 900 trees, which community members deem inaccurate. The EIA also includes false names of impacted villages, districts, plants and animals which come from other parts of the country.

For the project’s construction, Sangrila Urja Pvt Ltd plans to use around 192,000 tonnes of explosives and 188,000 detonators. These will inevitably damage 26 glaciers, three of which are located within two kilometres of the project site, with the rest located within five kilometres. Furthermore, the destruction of glaciers, rivers, lakes, and forests will cause the desecration of people’s sacred ancestral lands and communal faith, thereby impacting their very survival.

The project has also bypassed people’s free, prior, and informed consent. 

Community members only found out about the said explosives after the EIA was made public in 2022. The Ministry of Forests and Environment approved the EIA without proper due diligence.

When Sangrila Urja Pvt Ltd conducted a meeting with community members from Chyamtang, Thudam, and Ridak to share information about the project, the company only gathered barely a third of the total affected households. According to the community, 17 signatures were allegedly forged, one of which even belonged to a 10-year-old child. The meeting was merely used to indirectly gather false “consent” for the EIA. 

The Chhujung Khola Hydropower Project is just one of the many projects that fuel Nepal’s construction boom despite its large-scale environmental destruction and human rights violations impacting indigenous communities.

Sangrila Urja Pvt Ltd, White Flower Energy Pvt Ltd, and Summit Energy Solution Pvt Ltd, among many others, have all committed a long list of violations against people and the environment. This includes the harassment and intimidation of local community members; obtaining of false project permissions; the fabrication of information in their EIAs, including copy-pasting information from EIAs of other projects; the construction of illegal roads through nationally protected community and spiritual forests and yak pasture lands; and encouraging workers to kill endangered animals for bushmeat.

Such environmental harms posed by these profit-hungry development projects are largely irreversible. Without intervention, indigenous communities in Nepal fear for their survival.

Call to action

We demand the Government of Nepal to immediately stop the Chhujung Khola Hydropower Project, which has been legitimised by an EIA full of lies and carried out without any meaningful participation and consultation with the affected communities.

We emphasise the importance of impartial and thorough EIAs and Social Impact Assessments before projects are approved.

We urge the Government of Nepal to prioritise people’s free, prior, and informed consent before green lighting energy projects. Communities have the right to say no. All projects must include grievance mechanisms and access to remedies for communities whose lives would be impacted by such projects.

Lastly, we call on the Government of Nepal to recognise, respect, and uphold the fundamental rights and freedoms of indigenous peoples.

Endorsing organisations

• ALTSEAN-Burma, Thailand/Burma
• Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders (APNED), regional
• Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Thailand/regional
• Association of Central Asia, Uzbekistan
• Balay Alternative Legal Advocates for Development in Mindanaw, Inc. (BALAOD Mindanaw), Philippines
• Centre for Human Rights and Development, Mongolia 
• Defence of Human Rights Pakistan
• Empire Women Development Initiative, Nigeria
• Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL), Philippines/global
• Indigenous Women Legal Awareness Group (INWOLAG), Nepal 
• Initiative for Green Planet (IGP), Uganda
• International Accountability Project, global
• International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW AP), Malaysia
• Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law
• Knowledge for Development Foundation (K4D), Thailand
• Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP), Nepal
• Manushya Foundation, Laos/Thailand
• Merdeka West Papua Support Network, West Papua/global
• Oyu Tolgoi Watch, Mongolia
• Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum
• People’s Watch, India
• Phenix Center, Jordan
• Poros Muda untuk Aksi Bersama (POMANARA), Indonesia 
• POSSIBLE FUTURES, Philippines/Brazil
• Public Association “Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan”
• Public Association “Dignity”, Kazakhstan
• Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), Bangladesh
• Rivers without Boundaries International Coalition, global
• Rivers without Boundaries Mongolia
• Society for Peace and Sustainable Development (SPSD)-Pakistan
• STAR Kampuchea (SK), Cambodia
• The Awakening, Pakistan
• The Globe International Center, Mongolia
• Growthwatch
• Indian Social Action Forum