By HH Mohrmen
In the early nineties while travelling from Guwahati to Shillong in an old cranky Ambassador taxi, the taxi driver on learning that I was from Jaintia hills District, referred to the coal deposits in the District and said, “You people are lucky, God has blessed you with immense wealth.” I hesitantly replied, “I don’t know Bah, if it’s a blessing or a curse but one thing I know for sure is that only a tiny section of the population in the district will become rich.” Some years later Arkin Pariat who was posted as Transmission Executive of the All India Radio Jowai, during one of our informal chats, suggested that the inscription in the signpost at Umwasoo welcoming visitors to Jaintia should instead read “Welcome to Jaintia ills.” I mention this because Pariat in his capacity as an officer of AIR, Jowai has visited many places in Jaintia and I take this suggestion as an observation made by someone who is not from the district. Things have only got worse.
Now, two decades later if anybody asks me the same question, I would unhesitatingly say, it is a curse. I know this is only my opinion and I am allowed to have one. I also know there are others, particularly those who have become rich from mining will not agree with me, but what is going on in the district in general and the sub division in particular only proves otherwise.
In a span of two months two esteemed dailies of the region the Telegraph and the Shillong Times have carried out feature stories of the raging crime scene in the area. The ST’s scream-line on that day labeled Jaintia hills the epicenter of crime. There are crime news reported from the area nearly every day; the most recent one was the attempted robbery by an armed gang on a Petrol refilling station at Tuber. Yet, surprisingly or perhaps unsurprisingly neither the district administration nor the district police took note of the report. I use the word ‘unsurprisingly’ because anybody who knows the area and has done some work in the Khliehriat sub division knows the crime graph in the area heads north every summer because it is the lean period and mining activities are at off peak season due to the rains. Then crime rate falls once the rain stops and mining activities start picking up again and the cycle continues year after year. The only difference is that the crime rate increase and crimes become heinous as time goes by.
If a coal mine owner says that mining is a blessing then the question that begs the answer is why are they leaving their village for Shillong or Jowai? Isn’t it true that they have migrated because the environment has been destroyed, all the water bodies over and underground are polluted, and come winter, coal dust and now fly ash particles envelope the atmosphere? Before the NEEPCO shared the findings of the study conducted by the company that the life span of the Kupli Hydro electric is going to be affected by the acidic water flow from Jaintia hills; before the MECL started the construction of the Myntdu-Lechkha project; before the report of shoals of fish dying in the Lukha river in the year 2007, it was already known to the local environmentalists that the water in most of the rivers in Jaintia hills are poisoned. Now the only major rivers in the District free from the pollution caused by coal mining are the Umngot and the river Myntang, but for how long? Recently Allan West, excited by the big catch from his fishing trip to Umngot, suggested in a Facebook chat that we should start popularizing Umngot as the anglers’ paradise or fishing hot spot of the state because Kynshi in West Khasi Hills is currently affected by coal mining. When I reasoned it out with him that Umngot is also under threat of pollution from the leaches emanating from the coal mine of Chkhentalang and Jarain area of Amlarem Sub division, and the dumping of coal on the side of NH 44 from Mookyndur to Pommura, Allan said he would use Google earth to see for himself if that is true and that was the end of the conversation.
News of the earth caving in or the cracks in the earth occurring in Sohkymphor village was first reported on the social media network by a young man Lalam Manner who was obviously close to the village. It was posted on the Facebook page. Lallam panicked when he reported the news and was concerned about the safety of the people travelling to Sohkymphor because the day after was a market day. The next day reporters from Jowai visited the village and posted the photographs on the Save Jaintia Rivers and Caves of Jaintia hills facebook page for everybody to see. The crack which has cut the PWD road right through the middle and has also damaged many houses including RCC buildings without even a tremor is a cause of concern. The entire Khilehriat sub division where the rat hole mining system is practiced is precariously sitting over a network of mine caverns crisscrossing each other; in fact every coal mining village is another Sohkymphor waiting to happen. If the earth in the area caves in without any tremor, then the question is what will happen if God forbid an earthquake of a high magnitude hits the area? Is the district disaster management prepared for such an eventuality?
Let us not be prophets of doom but instead look at the problem that people will face in the coming winter months, once the coal business starts picking up again. I know public memory is short, so let me remind you of the traffic jam last year on the entire national highway 44 that we had all experienced which has even affected the flow of traffic in Shillong. Well it is time to prepare for the worst. There are already thousands of trucks transporting coal from the district during peak season. Add to that the 10 cement plants in the district which also use trucks to import raw materials for their plants and export cement outside the state. The annual production of each cement company is at least one million tones. So 10 cement plants produce a minimum of 100 million tons of cement per annum! I will let our esteemed readers calculate the number of trucks needed to do all the transportation work.
Isn’t it time for the people of Jowai and Shillong to raise their voices against the mushrooming of cement plants because their trucks not only pollute our environment but apart from using the roads that we all pay for, they cause undue harassment to the population of the three districts, the Jaintia Hils, the East Khasi hills and the Ri Bhoi District? Why should we let the Daloi and the Rangbah Shnong of Thangskai or for that matter any elaka or village decide what is going to affect us too? In the recent public hearing for Adhunik mining area, not only the Daloi and Rangbah Shnong supported the mining in forested areas, but even the MDCs of the JHADC sent letter of support in favour of mining in the area. And these are the institutions that are supposed to protect the tribal interest! One wonders whether these semi-educated MDCs have read the three part feature report, “Forest or non-forest: Definition after destruction?” carried by the Shillong Times and if they will still support the mining activities after having read the stories.
Now should we not also blame the government which is yet to come up with a Mining Policy even after four decades have elapsed since coal was first commercially started in Jaintia hills? BM Lanong Minister in charge, mining, is a seasoned politician who knows when is the right time to open his mouth. Hence it is not surprising that Lanong seldom mentions the mining policy before the assembly. He has now shoved the mining policy under the carpet and God only knows when the draft see the light of day. And mind you he too is the leader of a regional party which claims to protect tribal interests! One only hopes that a situation will not arise when by the time the policy is implemented there will be no more rivers to protect and many Sohkymphor like incidents have happened. By then it will be too little too late for the government to implement the Mining policy. (The writer is a research scholar and social thinker)