By HH Mohrmen
It was a pleasant surprise to read in The Shillong Times stories where the Chief Minister of Meghalaya for a change, called the NGT interim ban on rat hole mining a blessing in disguise. In my opinion there are two important points we need to accept if we are to move forward vis-à-vis coal mining in the state. We can no longer feign ignorance and must accept the fact that mining had caused immense damage to the environment. The second point is that in many ways the interim ban is blessing than a curse to the state. It is a blessing because it also helps us look beyond the ban and explore other sustainable livelihood alternatives for the people affected by the interim ban.
I would therefore like to share some best practices and success stories of people who have ventured into hitherto untrodden paths to help create livelihoods for themselves and others. These are some of the stories from both the East and West Jaintia Hills District where people who dared to think differently have explored new livelihood opportunities and are not only gainfully employed from the activities but have also been able to create employment avenues for others.
These stories and best practices can be replicated to create sustainable livelihood alternatives for the people affected by the mining ban. To begin with let us remind ourselves that unemployment problem (especially amongst educated youths) is not peculiar to coal mine areas only but is in fact a major problem in the state and country as a whole.
Earlier, East Jaintia Hills District has never had any unemployment problem; the region has in fact been able to employ labourers from different parts of the country and even labourers from some neighbouring countries find employment in the region. But like the rest of the state, unemployment problem especially among the educated youths is a major problem area.
The fact that the government has not been able to create alternative job avenues for the educated unemployed youths is obvious from the sheer numbers of young people registered in different District employment offices and huge number of job seekers applying for any government job advertised by different government agencies. Of course it is not for the government to create jobs for the entire population of the state. It is of course the individual or the group which can come up with a business idea or a business plan to start business. But nevertheless it is the role of both the state and the national government to facilitate job creation in the state.
I will try to share few stories where this model of individual or group facilitated by the government worked like a well-oiled machine to enable the farmers or the entrepreneur to be gainfully employed and in some cases even upscale their production to enhance the income of the practitioners and ultimately improve the economy of the people.
Smoked foods particularly fish or meat by keeping it near or on the top of the fire place to preserve it is an ancient tradition used by human beings since time immemorial. But in Meghalaya the people of Umladkhur and Thangbuli were able to make use of the customary practices to create a viable income generating activity for the people of the village.
However, the problem is the shelf life of smoked-fish which is preserved by using traditional methods, is only one week mainly because the fish were smoked without removing the intestines. The traditional method of smoking using only firewood without using any kiln also does not give regular and equal amount of heat, hence the fish are not properly heated and cured. The Project Director Rural Development Agency, West Jaintia hills in collaboration with Meghalaya Basin Development Agency, Shillong sent the smoke fish partners from Umlatkhur and Thangbuli for an exposure visit to Andhra Pradesh. The visit facilitated the continued efforts by the agencies both in Meghalaya and the ICAR in Andhra Pradesh to improve on the traditional methods of smoking fish and also to provide them with training on basic hygienic knowhow for proper maintenance of a production unit.
The smoked fish partners have come a long way and now they have been able to upscale their products and more importantly improved on the method of producing smoked fish in these two villages. But the other offshoot of this effort is that there is an increasing demand for fresh fish which has encouraged people in the area to start fish farming.
Neta Pohthmi was an educated unemployed youth till he went for training on food processing and on returning from the training he started a small business of making pickles and fruit juice. Last year he approached a bank which provided him Mudra loan to construct a working shed and upscale his production. Now Neta has enhanced his production and supplies his products to Jowai and is repaying his loan regularly.
Then we have stories of people from East Jaintia hills who have ventured into farming and livestock business. The Basin Development Unit East Jaintia hills sent Sunshine Siangshai of Wapung for training on piggery and on returning from the training he started his own piggery unit without availing any loan. Sunshine said that he did not need a bank loan to upscale his production and that marketing his products is not a problem because buyers come to buy from the farm gate. Amethyst Salahe of Semasi village Saipung Block is another entrepreneur who was a trained beekeeper and is now producing honeybee and supplying the same in a modern packaging.
Beekeeping or Apiculture is another possible livelihood activity for the people in the East Jaintia hills. The District still has large tracks of forest land which is conducive for keeping bees and in Semasi alone we have many farmers who have already started doing this business.
Post the NGT ban we have many people engaging in agriculture activities like starting floriculture business in Wapung village; then there are those who have started producing ginger and even turmeric in bulk in East Jaintia hills district. And there are those who in a small way started a kitchen garden in their backyard; something which one would not have heard of in the past because of people’s preoccupation with coal business.
Looking forward East Jaintia hills also has huge potentials in Eco and Adventure tourism and the Narpuh reserve forest can be developed to create ample job avenues for young people. Home stay, nature camps, bird watching and even butterfly watching can attract tourists to this area which can in turn create sustainable livelihood opportunities for the people. Environmental scientist Dr Rajkamal Goswami has documented more than 400 species of butterflies in the Narpuh reserved forest which is also noted for its Hoolock gibbons.
East Jaintia hills is also blessed with a network of caves in places like Narpuh, Shnongrim and Pala area which are pride of the state. We should be proud of the fact that the longest and the deepest caves in the country are found in the East Jaintia hills district. The caves also house exotic cave plants and animals and it was recorded that there is one species of bat which is endemic to the area. The potential Cave tourism is yet to be explored in the East Jainta hills.
Bataw which has a huge lake Um Hang also has potential for development as a tourist spot. The area also has pitcher plants and vast greenery which could be major tourist attractions. Meghalaya Adventure Association (MAA) has also very recently discovered many cave passages in the Bataw-Borkhat range. Borkhat is another village with huge tourism potential because an ancient temple which is believed to be the remnant of the erstwhile Jaintia Kingdom era is still standing in the area; the villages around are also blessed with beautiful river beaches which again could attract tourists to the area.
These are but few ideas of how we can create sustainable alternative livelihoods for the people who have been affected by the NGT interim ban on coal mining in the area. One hopes that the state government will not rest but move from pillar to post till it can come up with livelihood alternatives for people affected by the NGT ban.