By H H Mohream
In a nutshell the history of mining in Meghalaya started with stone and sand quarrying, mining of limestone for making white washing walls and using the same as paste while consuming beetle nuts and pan leaves. People extracted these minerals for local use hence these practices can be categorized as traditional mining.
Industrial mining of limestone is less than ten years old, although earlier there were two small cement plants in the state that is the Mawmluh Cherra Cements and the Jaintia Cements, but it was only very recently that mega cement plants came to set up shop in the area. Mining of limestone for use in the big cement plants is very recent particularly in the Elaka Narpuh of East Jaintia hills district of Meghalaya. The government does not consider the sustainability of industrial activities in the area when it allows setting up of more than 8 cement plants and their captive power plants in an area with a radius of less than 5 sq km. The area where the cement plants were set up was previously forested area, but forest was cleared to enable the companies to set up their plants. The areas where the cement plants are located are also very close to the Narpuh Reserve forest of Meghalaya, the closest will be less than 5 sq km radius from the reserved forests.
Mining of limestone for export to Bangladesh is also of a very recent origin. Limestone was also mined by the natives of the place for export to Bangladesh; mining on the Indo-Bangladesh border particularly in the Nongtalang and Pynursla villages was carried out with total disregard to the national mining and forest laws. Forest was cleared without any consideration on its impact on the environment or the socio economic aspects of the poor and the marginalized in the area. Mining was done at the whims and fancy of the mine owners. The tribals of the area, on the pretext that they own the land, feel that they can do whatever they like because with that land. The question is what about those who live adjacent to the mines or downstream of the river who through no fault of their own are affected by mining. The rampant destruction of the environment is because of the tribal misconception of the land tenure system.
In the pre-independence period people in the Wapung and Chyrmang area used to mine coal on a very small scale and supplied the same to the British officers for use in their bungalows and to the missionaries for use in their hospitals and houses. Commercial mining of coal in the erstwhile Jaintia hills district was started only in the early 1970s, but the damage done to the environment is beyond words. Rat hole mining of coal also put the entire area under threat of the earth caving in and because mining was done underground if (God forbid) an earthquake of a considerable magnitude hits the area then much of the area around will collapse. The effects of coal mining on the environment is of a huge magnitude. There are reports of crevices appearing in different parts of the state especially in the East District of Jaintia hills due to rat hole mining. It was reported in the press that cracks on the entire market area of Sohkymphor village appeared due to coal mines left unclaimed. Again signs of land underground caving in was noticed when buildings of the Rymbai Public Health Centre begin to crack. Water bodies in the entire mining areas are affected and rivers are polluted and all signs of aqua life in the rivers have gone. NEEPCO reported that the acidic water of the rivers in the coal mining area has affected their power plants and that machines exposed to the river water has unnaturally corroded which in turn has an effect on the expected lifespan of the Kupli Hydro electric project in the Assam Meghalaya border.
The main causes leading to the rapid environmental degradation in Meghalaya is due to the absence of any kind of regulation or policy to check rampant mining in the area. Mining in the state is illegal because mining activity (except mining done by the cement companies) is carried out without any environmental clearance, mining lease or any kind of permission either from the state or the central government agencies. Some limestone miners in Meghalaya only received NOCs from their respective District Council which does not even have the mechanism and wherewithal to check and control mining and which therefore renders it incompetent to issue any NOC. Moreover as per the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution mining is not a subject under the District Councils. On the plea that land and rivers are subjects under the Councils they have authorized rampant mining in the state.
Mining in Meghalaya is in total chaos because neither the national mining or the forest and environment laws are being implemented in the state particularly on the mining carried out by the local people. The State has come up with its own mining and mineral policy, but the same is yet to be implemented. The two major issues which contribute to the rapid degradation of environment in the state is the absence of any regulation whether national or state to manage and control mining and the misconception of the tribal people in the state that because Meghalaya is a Sixth Schedule area which has its own traditional land tenure system, hence the natives of the place have the freedom to do whatever they like with the land. Coal mining was never a traditional practice of the people. They seldom needed the mineral for their own use, and neither did they use it for smelting of iron which the Khasi Pnars were famous for since time immemorial.
It is also unfortunate that the state is losing the exotic caves in the area, to mining. Hundreds of caves in the state have been surveyed and mapped by the Meghalaya Adventurers Association(M AA) are under the threat of being destroyed. Some of the caves are found to be on the list of the longest and the deepest caves in South Asia. But all these are going to be history if the State is not interested in protecting the environment.
In the case of Meghalaya, both the District Councils and the State Government has failed in their duty to protect and preserve the environment. Although rivers fall under the District Councils, all the rivers in the coal mining areas particularly in the two districts of Jaintia hills have become dead rivers. Further empowering the District Councils which have failed in their duty is not a solution. Most of the members of the ADC particularly in Jaintia have very less education and most of them are also coal mines owners themselves or have stakes in the mining business or are ex coal mines owners.
Hence mining in Meghalaya is a very critical issue but the State Government is taking it very lightly. The Government needs to find a way to stop this rampant destruction in the area and the matter is very urgent.