By Patricia Mukhim
From Ardent Basaiawmoit the CEM Khasi Hills District Council to John Kharshiing the voice of the “Grand Council of Chiefs,” to the State Government, to the HNLC and to legal eagles, the clamour against the ban on coal mining by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is reaching a deafening crescendo. Kharshiing has been quick to greet Narendra Modi for reasons not entirely unknown. (Most people are quick at finding serendipity and know exactly when to jump from one to the other at appropriate moments). It’s not very difficult to understand why there are so many powerful stakeholders in the coal mining business. Coal has enriched not just the mine owners but also many others who have learned to tap into this black diamond such as politicians. Every election (Lok Sabha, Legislature and District Councils) is funded largely by coal barons. This time the fanfare during the Lok Sabha polls was largely muted because the coal trade had dwindled.
There are, as HH Mohrmen points out, with great fervour, a large number of people who have been adversely affected by coal mining. Acid Mine Drainage has destroyed the fertility of the soil not just around the mines but the seepage has affected the soil miles across the Jaintia Hills and beyond. Several people have lost their lives insides the creepy rat holes. Three important rivers of Jaintia Hills the Kupli, Luna and Lukha have literally been rendered lifeless. No scientific research has been carried out as yet about the impact of AMD on catchments that supply drinking water to the surrounding populations. The jury is also still out on the impact of AMD on the health of the citizens residing around the coal mines. Till date none of the above worthies have expressed any concern about the illegal immigration that coal mining activities survive on. No one has heard John Kharshiing or Ardent Basaiawmoit champion the cause of the environment which we are all joint custodians of. In the case of the former the question to ask is whether he only represents the Grand Chiefs ( a privileged section that has both power, privilege and, property) or whether he also speaks on behalf of the hapless who are voiceless. In the case of Ardent Basaiawmoit he has to answer what he means by “Clean Politics.” Does he subscribe to the idea that the ends and means of attaining Clean Politics are equally important? If he believes in the ends and means philosophy of Gandhi he would agree that politics that is supported by the coal mafia is neither ‘Clean’ nor sustainable. It is not sustainable because it is happening at the cost of the environment which is already so precarious.
Of course when we speak of mining we need to include the cement industry as well. So too the extractive manner in which we have banked all the sand from our rivers and quarried all the boulders. Our extraction of these natural resources has been relentless. As a result we are leaving behind an environment that is robbed of all health and wealth. How can a poor, depleted environment support a healthy population? The idea itself is incongruous! A depleted environment is not habitable. Why are more and more people from Jaintia Hills (mainly the coal barons) uprooting themselves to settle elsewhere? They know that they are leaving behind a legacy of desolation where they don’t want their children to grow up in. The boomtowns of Khliehriat, Sutnga, and Lakadong etc look like ghost towns today minus the coal economy to fuel them. We are told that quite a number of labourers from the mines have packed up to return to Nepal, Assam or to slip away to Bangladesh until something else triggers the growth engine of Meghalaya.
Now coming to the provisions of the Constitution, there is nothing in that Indian Magna Carta which encompasses the best Indian Philosophical and Political Thought, which supports environmental exploitation. The Constitution is a pragmatic document which looks at the larger public good. Even the National Green Tribunal was enacted under the constitutional provision of Article 21, which assures the citizens of India the right to a healthy environment. How can anyone question the NGT and claim immunity from it merely because we are a Sixth Scheduled State? The problem we have always faced as a people is that each time the provisions of the Sixth Schedule are cited they are done so on behalf of powerful stakeholders. Remember the Meghalaya Land and Forest Owners Association that fought tooth and nail against the ban on timber in 1996? Thankfully they could not get too far considering the rigid stance taken by the Supreme Court then. Mercifully the 10-year moratorium against timber felling regenerated our forests. We would have suffered a worse fate by now had that 10 year respite not been given to our environment.
There are powerful voices in support of coal mining because it is the domain of the powerful. Claims that many are losing their livelihoods are tenuous. Unless backed by evidence-based research about how many poor families actually survive on coal mining, it is pointless to camouflage the angst to support the powerful by using the poor. Someone pointed out Meghalaya does not even have hard statistics on the number of mines in the State; the number of families dependent on mining; the impact of mining activities on human health; the number of people buried alive inside the holes with no one ever finding out about their quiet and pitiable demise, trapped without oxygen inside and probably struggling to catch their last breath. Has anyone ever spoken on their behalf even when 15 people were trapped inside mines in Garo Hills and died there? And when the NGT clamps down on such inhuman activities we have the elite of society challenging the NGT and calling it unconstitutional? So what is constitutional? Is the desecration of the environment without even a reclamation plan, constitutional? Do mine owners have overriding powers over the State, the Government, and the Constitution? Then who will protect the interests of those who are affected by mining activities? Why is there only an eerie silence to this query?
Let us remind ourselves that the NGT has come to Meghalaya mainly because of a petition filed by people beyond our borders. No environmental protection group or individual from Meghalaya is even willing to be a co-petitioner in this case. Coal mining has a huge overriding interest even in Assam. The Dima Hasao Student’s Union which had filed the petition are apparently under great pressure to retract their complaint. I was told that several vested interests from Assam are using their clout to intimidate the petitioners. Such is the powerful reach of the coal mafia! We are looking at a situation where increasingly there are more supporters for the anti-environment clique than for conserving mother earth.
It is not for nothing that the Khasis call nature ‘Ka Mei Ram-ew’, meaning Mother Earth. Our ancestors weighed every word they spoke. They were wedded to the earth and know its worth. Today so few people actually smell the earth and understand nature. A mother nurtures, cares and would give her own life to save her child born out of her womb. But how do children repay their mother for that love and care? By ruthlessly exploiting her day in and day out and leaving her a barren, desolate wasteland?
All those who have ganged up to raise their voices against the NGT have never spoken a word against the devastation and pollution that coal mining has caused. Never once have they spoken about re-afforesting the abandoned mines. Now their hearts are suddenly bleeding for “so-called” poor people who depend on coal mining! Sounds like a well calibrated palaver> But don’t we know better?