If you go down to an anthill, you go down to the ants and say, " I bring you trinkets; I bring you bees; take me to your ant queen; I give you nuclear energy."
As an analogy, humans are more intelligent and competent than ants, ? and if we want to build a hydroelectric dam where there happens to be an anthill, there may no malevolence involved, but, well... too bad for the ants.