New Delhi, Oct. 26 -- India's proposed 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) in Arunachal Pradesh is about more than generating electricity.

For New Delhi, the project is likely a strategic safeguard against China's massive hydropower development upstream on the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet.

But the proposal has triggered strong local opposition, with protests escalating into violence in October over fears of displacement, loss of ancestral land and environmental damage.

Fresh research by Chinese scientists has added another dimension to the debate. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan University have warned that runoff in the Yarlung Tsangpo could increase over the course of this century, pot...