By H H Mohrmen
The older generation of this community would reminiscence about the good old days. They recall the days when their water was still fresh and they would spend the whole day in the river. They talk about the time when their river was not affected by mining; when they would catch all kinds of fishes big and small and the livelihood of the entire village depended on the fish. They narrate their stories to whoever is interested to know about their past and they would share endless stories of the time when the people and the river coexisted. But now they lament that with one fell swoop, the swollen rivers from the rolling hills have taken away all the fishes and also a large part of their lives away from them.
When the poisonous water came rolling down it not only killed the fishes in the river but it also deprived the people of their source of drinking water. Now, ironically villages which are situated on the banks of one of the biggest river in the district, have to look for other sources of water. Some villages like Pasaduar depend on the government water supply for all their needs while villages like Lumpyngngad have to ride on a boat many hours together to collect water for their needs. The river which used to be their lifeline has all of a sudden become too toxic for their use.
The sad part of the story is that when we ask the youths in the age group of 14 and 18 what they know about the river we get a blank look. Most of them are ignorant of the past history of the river and the village. They do not know that different kinds of fishes some as big as a 45 kg cat fish once lived in the river and they know very less about the history of their village. They did not know that apart from hundreds of varieties of fishes there were also other riverine life. On the sand along the river, tortoises of various shapes and size crawl. The sad part of the story is not because the river Tisang which is downstream of the river Myntdu is now dead, but because the young generation of the community who live in these villages now know nothing of all those stories about the river. One day when the older generation of the villages are dead and gone, the fascinating stories about the people and the relationship they had with the river will also go away with them. The death of a river is also the death of history!
The younger generation of the village have not only lost the stories of the river and the village, but what is tragic is that they no longer have any relationship with the river anymore. When a 14 year old boy, April Syrti from Lumpyngngad was asked about the use of the river at present he said it was used only for crossing to the other bank. The river is not of any use to them anymore other than as a means of communication. How tragic! If you talk to the elders of the villages they would have stories of how they swam across the river, how they would catch boat-loads of fishes and then sell that to the traders who would come to buy the fishes from the villages.
But the people who live downstream of the rivers are not without hope. In spite what had happened to the river and its murder by callous coal mine owners they still see a ray of hope across the dark sky. Earlier they had an organization to cater to the needs of the fishing community in the area, but since there are no fish left they don’t see the need to continue with the organization. After they had done away with the fishing organization, the community downstream of the river Myntdu which consist of 10 villages, five each across the bank decided to form a new organization in 2014. The villages which comprise of Borkhat, Natbor, Pdengwah Khynriam, Dem Lakang, Kwator, in the East Jaintia hills and Kharkhana, Lumpyngngad, Pasaduar, Kamsing and Jaliakhola in West Jaintia hills came together and formed an organization known as Borkhat-Jaliakhola Aquatic Life Welfare Association (B-JALWA). When they were asked what is the main objective of the organization they unanimously answered that they wanted to see the river come alive again!
But come alive it will only if mining is stopped. It is like hoping against hope to even think of reviving or reclaiming the water in the dead river but the people who live across the banks of the river do not see anything wrong in it. When we asked them if they know how to clean the river we got a negative answer. Yet they believe that they will one day see the river clean and potable again. They dream of swimming along the river with lots of fish alongside and that they would once again be able to relive the past.
The best part of this story is that it was the people’s own initiative; it was their own desire to see the river alive again. There were no NGOs; neither were there any environmental activist to inspire, motivate, guide or help them to form the organization. It started from the people who had to endure the suffering of having to live with the dead river for no fault of theirs. And only those who had to undergo the experience and the pain of losing their river will understand the loss.
It is fine for the people downstream to hope. Like all good people they have to dream, but for their hope to materialize it would depend largely on the activity of the people who live upstream. For the river to regain its natural condition, they need the support of the people across the green hills. When we asked Mr Joyful Suna if he really thinks they would be able to reclaim the river again, the answer was a resounding ‘Yes’, but only if coal mining upstream is stopped. Their hope depends on the permanent ban of coal mining upstream of their river if life. But is this possible? Can this even happen?
Just as we returned from the trip to join them on their achievement of being able to organize themselves, at a place near Rymbai, on the road side we saw fresh coal extracted from a mine nearby. As we travelled along the National Highway 44 we saw fresh coal on the many depots. We even saw Shaktiman trucks carrying coal from the mines and unloading the same at the different depots in a broad daylight. Depots like those in Kongong which were bereft of coal few months back now had fresh coal dumped on the hill slopes. This is blatant violation of the National Green Tribunal ban. This is not only happening in East Jaintia hills, but also in West Jaintia hills and in fact all over the state with the government and the police looking the other way while the mine owners openly violate the ban.
NGT is being taken for a ride not only by the coal miners who cried foul when the NGT called them mafias, but even by the government which has done nothing to stop illegal mining. Now it is for everybody to see, if these people even respect the law. All along, this column has maintained that the coal miners believe that they can always buy their way through and for some time we thought that the NGT had proved that wrong, but now we are not so sure. Coal miners believe that money is the answer to all the problems and there is nothing that money can’t buy. Now it seems like they are right and for the people who live downstream, we don’t know if their hopes will ever be fulfilled.