Guwahati, May 23: The agitation against the Tipaimukh dam in Manipur has finally reached the United Nations.
The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, during its second session, which ended today in New York, discussed the threat posed by the Rs 1,078-crore multipurpose project to local tribals.
Raising the issue in the UN forum, representatives of the Centre for Organisation Research and Education (CORE) told the forum, ?The dam will mean virtually the total destruction of the worlds of the Hmar and Zeliangrong tribes and also have a long-term impact on many other indigenous tribals in the adjoining areas.?
Speaking over telephone, CORE director D. Roy Laifungbam said its UN mission was part of its awareness campaign against the project.
He added that already 40 civil organisations have been mobilised against the mega hydel project.
Efforts have also been made in the UN forum to block funding agencies from financing projects which are ?detrimental? to the interests of the indigenous people.
Laifungbam said in the UN forum on May 16 that following increasing international pressure, it had become difficult to get world funding agencies to finance such projects.
But the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (Neepco) has managed to rope in the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the United Trust of India to fund the project.