Is there any connection between saving the tiger and using less electricity? I didn't think so till I visited the land of the dammed! The North East is slated to be the powerhouse of the country. Over 200 mega and medium sized dams are to be built after cutting millions of trees and thousands of acres of forests. The irony only 12 per cent of the power generated from the dams is to be used locally the rest by big cities like Mumbai and Delhi.

And I am keen to know how do the people of the North East feel about this. A flight from Delhi to Dibrugarh and then a ferry ride crossing the might Brahmputra into Arunachal Pradesh and I already feel like I have entered a different world. In Roeing town in Dibang valley there seem to be no people on the streets. I walk into a huge hall, which is where everyone is gathered. Its drizzling and I am a bit cold and tired from my travels but there's no time to rest- I am here to document the struggles of the local people against a big dam for a half hour an television show - inside the hall there are heated arguments going on. This is the site of the worlds tallest dam the Dibang Multipurpose valley project is to come up which will cut down 5000 hectares of forests - population densities in Arunachal are low only two villages will be directly displaced. But the cumulative impacts will be much bigger- but there will be an influx of over 30,000 labour to build the dam. The daming of the river will affect thousands of people who live downstream along the river. Two tribal communities the Idu Mishmis and the Adis are opposing the building of the Dibang Multipurpose dam in the hall. They may have the label of tribals but there are few times have I seen such levels of awareness within a room. The Idu-Mushmis and the Adis have come prepared with legal documents with sections of the law to show that they are serious about opposing the dam.

Everyone is shouting at some gentlemen sitting on the stage who I realize later are officials who will build the dam. They are officers from the National Hydroelectric power corporation and they have to first get the consent of the local people through a process called as a Public Hearing. The public hearing though is considered to be a farce across the country people oppose big projects saying it will destroy their forests and land and yet the projects are still constructed.

A nights rest in a tent in Roeing Town and its time to head to the mountains. I can see the mountains in the distance here in the valley laden with snow in a few hours I hope to be up there. I am accompanied by a member from the Idu Mishmi community- Makola and he takes along a huge rifle- you never know what we may get in the forest he mutters to me as he jumps into the car. Makola is from the Idu Mishmi community and are skilled hunters. But he is today the biggest advocate of wild animals and their protection. I have my fingers crossed that we will encounter some wildlife as we move up to the snowline. How else do we show television viewers across India - that the dam will threaten endangered wildlife?

We trek through some parts of the forest for several hours. Makola's eyes and ears are sharp. He's on the lookout for hoolock gibbons. It's been mid-day and we have been on the trail of the hoolock gibbons for several hours. I am not that hopeful and quite tired of lugging heavy camera equipment. My cameraperson too I can see is getting tired. And then suddenly we hear the shrill WHOO WHOO! It's the call of the hoolock gibbons! And on one solitary tree we find them. There's three of them- a male and a female and yes! Even an infant! The hoolock -Makola tells me in Idu Mishmi culture is known as the 'sad monkey'- And he's right there is something pathetic looking about this animals. Hoolock gibbons today have an uneasy future. The female is usually brown and the male black and they have long limbs enabling them to swing from the branches of tall canopy trees. But what do you do if there are only small clumps of trees? You then remained confined to small pockets - its like being confined to just your house with no where else to go. Except with the Hoolock gibbons there are problems are more serious than confinement- fragmentation of their habitat means they are cut off from other populations of gibbons leading to inbreeding. Makola may not be a trained scientist but as he looks up at the gibbons with his binoculars he reminds me with the building of Dibang dam it will shrink the habitat of the gibbons even further. I look up at the gibbons as they leap around on the only two trees that are left in this forest. With more forests chopped will the gibbons lose another vital habitat? Will even this family that I am currently watching survive?

Its time to move towards the dam site- the forest canopy is even thicker now. I have traveled and walked forests across India but I am yet to see forests quite like this. There a bone chilling thought welling up inside of me at the thought that for the construction of the dam this will all be chopped. And maybe I am part of the problem. I come from a big city - and dams across the North East are aimed at boosting the electricity supply to cities such as the one I live in. Its started snowing now and theres a white carpet everywhere on green forests. Its picture perfect- but not for long.

Late into the night back in Roeing town the activists are still at work planning their agitation against the dam. We all sit around the fire in the kitchen as each activist shares their perspective with me. Raju Mimi runs a local newspaper called 'Veracity'. He asks in his editorials- who will the dam benefit? Us? Or the outsiders? And when the labour moves in to build the dam where will they stay? Obviously in the forests which means a further cutting of their precious trees. I watch silently listening to them sipping my tea.

Next day I meet another activist - a woman at the forefront of the anti-dam movement. Her name is Manaya - she is a dentist by profession - and that's when it strikes me that even the educated youth are against the construction of the dam. Manaya speaks calmly yet sensibly as she sits with her child in her lap- I ask doesn't she think the dam will bring more jobs, better roads and development? But her response is simple- No one has asked us what development we want. We already have roads and electricity. What jobs will we get? I am from the Idu Mishmi community there are only 12000 of my people left from my tribe. With the dam coming up where will we go? We will be pushed out of our own homes. Did anyone ask us if we want the dam in our precious forest? My father still lives off the river and the forest. Where will people like him go?

After my visit to Dibang valley I traveled across the North East visiting dam sites - the details of which you may see in our show on Citizens for Earth- the Land of the Dammed this Saturday. I met people who make me realize that when there's a power shortage in New Delhi suddenly the waters from the dam will be unleashed to generate more electricity - releasing water into their fields- at a time when they don't want it. And other times the Dams will divert the river thus affecting once again the movement of the river downstream. Local people will no longer have control over their natural resources.

But as I finished my travels - I also realized that skeptics sitting in Delhi might call people like Manaya, or Raju Mimi as impediments to development. That such agitations are obstacles - and India needs development and electricity. The question merely is who needs it and at what cost? Do we somewhere just assume that people and wildlife will just cope as we carry on with the rampant destruction of the forests with faulty environment impact assessment reports that cannot even list the number of wildlife being submerged by the dams? Many dams are being constructed without even the mandatory environment and forest clearance.

The North East is poised to become the powerhouse of the country. The question is does New Deli really care about millions of hectares of forests, habitats of the tigers and hoolock gibbons getting submerged or indigenous people losing their land and forests? Probably not. When I came back to Delhi I watched a television channel run a campaign to save the tiger- They got families across cities in India to sign on to save the tiger- families standing under blazing lights in bright shopping malls. Maybe there is a link between how much electricity we consume and saving the tiger. I wish the campaign had addressed that too. I also realized that the debate is not about dams or no dams but how many? And their cumulative impact in an era of global warming.