Patricia Mukhim
Tourism may be a money spinner but the carbon footprints it leaves behind are too horrendous to contemplate. To be fair to ourselves, this country does not yet have the technology to clean up the garbage that irresponsible humans generate on a daily basis. I have just returned from a trip to Pahalgam in Kashmir. The place is beautiful beyond imagination but the devastations caused by “Indian” tourists who have no idea of what it is to honour the earth and who to my mind are the most illiterate tourists in the world, are there for all to see. What is worse is that Indians want to look for God in every conceivable space and turn every mountain and river into an abode of their gods and goddesses where they must go for their pilgrimage.
This month of June the Amarnath Yatra will start from a place called Chandanbari in Pahalgam. The amount of garbage that will be generated while pilgrims trek up and down that 13 km route is indescribably humungous. Most of that garbage finds its way into the robustly beautiful white waters of the Lidder River and you cannot but feel the pain so see a pristine river having to carry the weight of human insensitivity. It’s a great irony that the people who walk miles and miles to find God could not care a damn about the destruction of a part of this universe which is where the God’s reside. Pahalgam town is much smaller than Shillong but the number of hotels/guest houses had come up at such a frenetic pace that it took a concerned citizen to PIL seeking a moratorium on hotels in the town. Hence the administration identified a place about twelve kilometers away and just by the side of the Lidder River. They called it New Pahalgam. Now, again, there is a rat race to construct as many guest houses/hotels in this new location. From March to October is the peak tourist season, so the guest houses are all fully occupied even though most of them don’t meet standard protocol
The slow but sure destruction of Pahalgam is there for all to see, but who will halt this pace of development? The locals are happy to earn their livelihoods taking people on pony rides up the mountain path to what they call New Switzerland (even names are cultivated these days). Even a pristine destination like Aru Valley now shows signs of fatigue. These places reminded me so much of our own Mawlynnong and Nongriat (Double Decker Root Bridge) and of what is likely to happen very soon if the footfalls to these cherished sites are not controlled.
On June 9, the Meghalaya Institute for Natural Resources (MINR) under the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority organized the Green Volunteers Conclave in Shillong as part of the World Environment Week Celebration. Listening to the presentations from individuals and groups from different districts of the state – Jaintia Hills, Khasi Hills, Ri Bhoi district etc., and the kind of activities they have taken up to restore the environment in innovative ways, was very heart warming. There were those who had taken up school kitchen gardens and used novel methods of vertical farming. They used the vegetables for midday meals in school. I was part of a 3-member panel of judges to see who deserved the first, second and third prizes based on their innovation, work done and presentations made. The presenters who included school children were very enthusiastic and spontaneous. Nothing was forced and they seemed to enjoy working to restore nature. A young lady from a school In Ri Bhoi said she is doing her best to create awareness about caring for the environment because she can foresee a time when people might have to carry oxygen cylinders for breathing if there are no more trees to absorb all the carbon that we humans and our activities generate.
A teacher from Ramakrishna Mission School Sohra while sharing his story said that the school is a completely plastic-free zone. The students also regularly clean up the tourist sites in and around Sohra. The teacher has also started a campaign around the schools in Sohra to give up covering their text and exercise books with plastic.
There was a presentation from Mawtyrshiah, Jaintia Hills where a group is trying to promote eco-tourism in very innovative ways such as designing footpaths in the shape of trees and banning all non-bio-degradable substances and promising to use only eco-friendly materials by 2018. Another presentation from West Khasi Hills was from an individual who has been growing different kinds of saplings and distributing them for planting within his own village and the adjoining areas. There are no dearth of people who care for the environment. It is the MBDA that has brought them under a common platform so that they are provided assistance to scale up their activities and sustain their efforts.
I was particularly impressed by a gentleman who has single-handedly tried to conserve some of the indigenous species of fish in Meghalaya. He has used modern technology to map the kind of fish that are available; those that are under threat of extinction and what is to be done to conserve those. Needless to say we would not have heard these amazing stories if not for the Green Volunteers Conclave.
There are however, some sad stories too. A member of the Synjuk Seng Samla Shnong (SSSS) from Ri Bhoi district showed graphic pictures of the huge piles of garbage that are emptied into the Umiam Lake by the rivers Umkhrah and Umshyrpi. That is a painful sight and it shows the callousness of the people living upstream about the fate of those who live downstream of the rivers. The idea that Meghalaya is home to the tribals who are a community with shared values and a shared future is now blown to smithereens! And mind you the very instruments that are meant to protect us tribals are being used against us by unscrupulous fellow tribals and by the District Councils!
I am speaking here of the Sixth Schedule which had created the Autonomous District Councils. I don’t find a single clause in the Sixth Schedule which talks of conserving the environment for the larger good. That is why coal mine owners and their pompous legal counsels flaunt the Sixth Schedule at us and mock all of us, almost telling us to ‘shut up,’ because the Sixth Schedule allows them to exploit the earth beneath, the forests and the rivers. It is appalling that the Councils lease out rivers to individuals to fish indiscriminately! Now why should one person have complete control over a river and all its riverine lives and fish away everything? Who gave the District Council that right? The Council is supposed to ensure community rights over individual rights. It has gone and done the opposite. In fact it is high time that we challenge the Sixth Schedule in the Supreme Court before all our natural resources are creamed off by a small group of tribal elite. This same elite already owns 70% of Meghalaya’s land and resources!
A senior government functionary while speaking at the Green Volunteers’ Conclave wondered if we have become too rule bound and if we needed a law against everything so that our insatiable appetites are reined in. There are also those who question the wisdom of the NGT in banning coal mining and depriving the state of revenue. So are they suggesting that we continue with extractive, exploitative mining that benefits a few at the cost of many? And what kind of Government goes along with this extractive form of revenue generation that seeks to destroy our very future? Is this why we elect governments? Is this also why the elite service of the government are so well paid and looked after? Aren’t they supposed to generate innovative ideas that are in the larger interests of the people of Meghalaya? Or should they be kowtowing to what politicians tell them. It’s time for the people of Meghalaya to do a social audit of the bureaucracy and assess their contributions to the State since its inception.
Look at the tourist sites conceptualized by bureaucrats! Jakrem is all but a lost cause..all cemented up; its natural look all but gone! The Government sponsored hotels and guest houses are so unimaginative that they all look like shoe boxes. And yet they have traveled to the world’s best resorts! Perhaps it because these bureaucrats get by without thinking! Is it time to get people from the market to deliver what they are asked to? It’s also time for society to ask hard questions from this elite service. If all the ideas have come from politicians then why should bureaucrats get such a hefty package which is going to get heftier by July this year?
Tourism promotion in Meghalaya is fine but it needs to be fine-tuned and regulated. Meghalaya cannot go the Kashmir way!