**5.2.1 Hydro-electric dam of Kaptai and the indigenous people**

In 1960s, the Pakistan Government constructed a hydro-electric dam at Kaptai (popularly known as Kaptai dam). Prior to construction it was neither consulted with the local people nor did it forecast the impact of this dam to the neighbouring lands, resources and people precisely. When the hydroelectric project came into effect in 1962, the water level rose beyond the forecasted one and so most of the rehabilitated (incorrect assumption of the engineers on forecasting the areas requiring rehabilitation before launching the hydro electricity production) areas submerged under water. The resettled people along with thousands of people became homeless loosing their houses, agricultural land, livestock and forests. Many indigenous people of the CHTs (about 100,000) became possibly the first ever environmental refugees in Indian subcontinent due to this huge hydroelectric project (GOB, 1975; Samad, 1994, 1999). As a result of Kaptai dam many Jumma people were moved into sparsely populated regions of Mizoram, Tripura, Assam and Arunachal of India without legal) identity (citizenship rights (Chowdhury, 2002; Uddin, 2008). All the respondents (100%) and key informants were very much aware of the negative impact of Kaptai hydroelectric dam and they considered this dam construction as the starting point of major conflict of the Jumma people with the Government. According to them, this dam not only ruined their life, but also inundated 65,527 ha of land, including 2,590 ha of well stocked reserved forest and about 21,862 ha of cultivable land.
