The Tipaimukh question: why a dam on the Barak keeps resurfacing in regional politics

The proposed Tipaimukh dam on the Barak river has resurfaced in regional politics, a decade after the project was shelved amid protests from Manipur and objections from Bangladesh downstream.

Supporters argue the region’s power deficit demands the project; opponents cite displacement, ecological damage and the unresolved politics of the river’s flow.

For the villages of Churachandpur, the dam is not an abstraction — it is the river they fish, bathe in and remember.