Over 20-30 quarries functioning along Garobadha-Hallidayganj route
TURA: Even as Meghalaya Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma recently announced that indiscriminate extraction of stones from Garo Hills should be immediately stopped one only needs to take a road trip from Garobadha down to Hallidayganj in West Garo Hills District to see that the practice continues on a wide scale resulting in the destruction of entire hilly regions in the district.
Sources have alleged that the people engaged in this wide scale destruction of entire hillocks are not the indigenous tribals of Garo Hills but non-indigenous people from West Garo Hills bordering Assam while some even belong to villages in Assam bordering.
Taking strong cognizance of the illegal practice taking place in full public view, a section of the people from Garo Hills have voiced their concerns over the alleged inaction by concerned authorities on the issue.
“If the Meghalaya Government can stop coal extraction, why can it not stop the extraction of stones from West Garo Hills District? The illegal quarrying of stones should be stopped immediately by enforcing proper law. There should be stringent laws not to allow transportation of stones to Bangladesh and also to neighbouring states,” they said.
The citizens feel that the already extracted stones if properly utilized should be sufficient for domestic works and construction of roads in the state. They questioned as to who was responsible for issuing such illegal permits to the owners of these stone quarries and came down hard on the GHADC as well as NGO leaders and Nokmas for turning a blind eye to the destruction.
“Why does the GHADC turn a blind eye to such thoughtless activities of these people? Where are those so called public leaders and NGOs? Where are our beloved Nokmas? Are they not supposed to protect the A’kings? What is the Nokma Council doing?” the citizens demanded adding that everyone seems to have become blind to the massive destruction of hills taking place in full view.
Meanwhile, reliable sources claim there are over 20-30 quarries all along the highway between Garobadha and Hallidayganj.
They say that each quarry has been responsible for the complete destruction of two or more hills leaving nothing but remnants of what it once was.
What is even more overwhelming is the fact that it is not just the hills that are destroyed by the extraction of stones but entire natural resources like trees, bamboos, shrubs, medicinal plants, fodder for cattle, homes of wild animals, birds, reptiles and amphibians resulting in ecological imbalance.
In order to prevent further destruction of the environment the citizens have called for strict rules and regulations to be put in place so as to deter local residents and village Nokmas from selling of hills within their a’kings to non tribals without prior knowledge of the higher authorities of the state.