Sixteen years after it first received environmental clearance, the 1,750 MW Demwe Lower hydroelectric project on the Lohit River in Arunachal Pradesh has been granted an 11-year extension, keeping its green nod valid until 2037. The decision, taken in January 2026 by an expert panel of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), cites prolonged litigation as the primary reason for extending the project’s environmental clearance (EC).
The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on river valley and hydroelectric projects relied on a series of government notifications and a key October 2025 office memorandum that treats time lost in courts and tribunals as a “zero period.” In effect, the years spent in legal disputes before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) were excluded from calculating the project’s clearance validity.
However, the extension has sparked fresh scrutiny because one of the litigations did more than merely delay proceedings. In 2017, the NGT set aside the project’s wildlife clearance and suspended its forest clearance, directing the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) to reconsider the approval. The wildlife clearance was subsequently granted again in 2018. Critics point out that the 2025 memorandum is silent on how “zero period” provisions apply when judicial orders overturn related approvals.
Litigation Delays Counted as ‘Zero Period’
Originally granted environmental clearance in February 2010 for a 10-year period, the project’s validity underwent several recalculations. A 2022 notification extended the validity of hydel project ECs to 13 years, recognising their long gestation periods. Another 2022 memorandum allowed validity to be counted from the date of final forest clearance or up to two years thereafter.
In the case of Demwe Lower, the validity was counted from February 2012, effectively keeping it active until February 2025. A one-year relaxation granted during the Covid-19 period further extended it to February 2026. The recent decision now pushes the deadline to 2037, factoring in over seven years lost in NCLT insolvency proceedings and approximately three and a half years attributed to NGT litigation.
The project, now being developed by Greenko Demwe Power Limited after insolvency proceedings involving the earlier developer, will involve constructing a 162.12-metre tall concrete gravity dam across the Lohit River. It requires diversion of 1,416 hectares of forest land and will submerge nearly 1,590 hectares.
Biodiversity Concerns and Baseline Studies
Environmental concerns remain significant. The Lohit basin and the Kamlang Tiger Reserve upstream serve as critical habitats for the endangered White-Bellied Heron. Earlier, in 2020, the EAC had recommended a detailed conservation plan for the species. However, minutes of the January 2026 meeting do not reflect any fresh discussion on biodiversity safeguards.
The NGT’s earlier intervention had stemmed from objections raised against the then environment minister’s decision to override expert members of the National Board for Wildlife who opposed the project due to its potential impact on the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park in Assam.
Questions have also arisen over the reliance on older baseline environmental studies. Under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, fresh baseline data are typically required only during fresh appraisal of projects. Since the Demwe Lower extension was treated as a continuation rather than a new appraisal, no new environmental or biodiversity studies were mandated.
When contacted, EAC chairperson Professor Govind Chakrapani of IIT-Roorkee stated that the committee had discussed the issue of earlier baseline data and concluded that since there had been no change in land use on the ground, the data would remain unaffected. On the question of counting NGT litigation which had resulted in suspension of forest clearance as “zero period,” officials declined to elaborate beyond what was recorded in the meeting minutes.
As Arunachal Pradesh continues to position itself as a hydropower hub, the Demwe Lower project highlights the complex intersection of environmental regulation, judicial oversight and infrastructure development. While the extension aims to prevent further delays in a long-pending project, it also raises broader questions about how litigation, wildlife clearances and ecological safeguards are balanced in India’s push for large-scale hydroelectric expansion.