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Public update

The IAF Quietly Earmarked A Pfutsero Mountain For A Radar In 2014. Twelve Years Later, The Local Public Organisation Discovered The Plan And Demanded It Be Relocated Anywhere Outside Nagaland.

1 May 2026 - Pfutsero, Phek district, Nagaland

Record date
1 May 2026
Location
Pfutsero, Phek district, Nagaland
The odd part

A high-altitude defence radar project conceived in 2014 stayed undisclosed for twelve years. Site-specific health-impact assessments: absent. Public consultation: absent. The CPO's recommended fix is technically still feasible — relocate it to anywhere outside Nagaland.

What happened

On May 1, 2026, the Chakhesang Public Organisation issued a statement strongly opposing the Indian Air Force's plan to install an advanced mountain radar system at Pfutsero in Phek district, under the Government of India's high-altitude defence programme. CPO president Vezühü Keyho and general secretary Chepetso Koza pointed out that the project had reportedly been conceived as far back as 2014 and had remained 'largely undisclosed to the public' until the CPO surfaced it themselves. There are, by the CPO's account, no transparent location-specific safety studies, no publicly available site-specific health-impact assessments and no informed public consent — for a radar large enough that it qualifies as a 'mountain' system. The NNC/FGN has separately invoked Article 371A; the Garo National Front has cautioned about long-term land-use restrictions. The CPO's demand is admirably efficient: scrap it at Pfutsero and put it 'anywhere outside Nagaland, preferably in less sensitive or uninhabited areas' — apparently the standard the Air Force has been using elsewhere all along.

Source material