By HH Mohrmen
I owe this article to the management of St Edmund’s College, Shillong and the faculty and the students of Social Work department for helping me discover this very important area of study. This is not the first time that I was invited to share my thoughts with the students of this prestigious college. In fact the two departments of this college, the Social Work and Environment Studies had help me realize that it is not enough to simply advocate for the protection of the environment but it is equally important to ensure that livelihood and environment protection go hand in hand for sustainability.
Promoting Community and Environment Sustainability is the theme of this year’s celebration of World Social Work Day. It is true that people would recognise the need for protection of the environment if the community sees the direct and immediate benefits that they are going to reap from engaging in the activity. This column has shared the story of how Shnongpdeng become a tourist attraction and the beginning is from the community’s felt need to protect the Massiah portion of the river as a fish sanctuary.
Then there is the story of the Buam Clan which started promoting Krangshuri waterfalls as a tourist spot with the support from the District Administration. The primary objective of the clan is to protect the waterfall and the stone bridge adjacent to it. “Tourism is secondary,” said Donbok Buam. Promotion of environmental sustainability has already happened in some parts of the state. But these are new stories where communities and individual in the area are already engaged in activities which are environmentally sustainable.
We have heard of stories of the sacred groves and the community forests – these are old narratives, but the truth is our communities continue to promote environment sustainability by jointly protecting streams, rivers and even forests from being destroyed.
The Khasi-Pnars are known to be people who live close to nature and of their ingenious ways of meeting their daily challenges. I remember an occasion when we took farmers from Amlarem sub division to meet the scientists at ICAR, Umiam and as facilitators and translators it was amazing to see how the two sides could really relate to each others. The subject of discussion was on the decline in production of mandarin organs from the area which was once a major supplier of oranges and the same was even exported to Bangladesh a long time ago. The farmers know of the diseases that attack the plants and when the scientists suggested some remedial measures, the farmers said that they had already tried similar methods.
From our interactions with the farmers we learnt the ingenious way of how people in the villages dealt with the challenges that they face every day, be it in their agricultural activities or in livestock keeping. If we are with a resourceful villager, he will identify plants and tell us what their uses are. From treating personal ailments to treating their domesticated animals, they have it all in the nature around them or rather they make use of what is available locally for their daily and immediate needs.
During our visit to Samasi our farmer friend Gripbymmom Dkhar (who had only started beekeeping few years ago) told us that he could predict the weather by simply observing the movement and the commotion of the bees in the beehive. While his friends have to go to the forest to look for wild bee colonies to expand their collection, he told us he did not need to go anywhere; the wild bees will come to his trap and he is not willing to share the idea with us (which we fully understand).
Another farmer Moonlight Langstang told us how he deals with the tiny red ants that attack his cauliflowers and his methods are ingenious. He only uses materials that are easily available locally to solve the problem. When the cauliflowers he grew were attacked not by any insects but by millions of tiny red ants, he was at his wits end. He did not want to use insecticides or pesticides so he devised a plan to rid the ants of his vegetables. He found the solution to his problem in a can of pig fats; yes that’s right pig fat.
To divert the ants from attacking his vegetables he placed a can full of pig fat adjacent to the plant and overnight the ants changed their course of attack from the cauliflowers to the pig fat. Every day he would remove thousands of red ants from his garden and thereby save his cauliflowers. But he had another problem. The animal fat also attract dogs and he found that his own and neighbours’ dogs came to consume the fat before the ants which did not serve the original purpose. Again he came up with a brilliant idea to the keep the dogs away from the fat meant to trap the vicious ants. He then made a fence around the can of fats to keep out the dogs.
The stories may sound simple and irrelevant for urban people who only consume and do not know how difficult it is to produce, but it shows how farmers are constantly innovating to meet the challenges by making use of the lessons they learn from nature. In all these cases, the method used is not only original but it is also organic and does not have any harmful side effect on the consumers. In his desire to make profit from his produce the farmer learns by observing what happens around him and applies his mind to come up with a solution which is win-win for all.
I think the recent study that we did is worth mentioning, because it was done for the first time in the area and we were surprised by the findings. For so long we refrained from engaging in any activity or doing any kind of study in East Jaintia Hills because we thought that people were not yet ready and we know that they were at the crossroads when it comes to livelihood activities. The interim ban on coal mining caught the people by surprise and they are still reeling from it not knowing what to do and where to go. But since the beginning of this year we realized that in some cases the people of East Jaintia hills are already using their survival instincts and are picking up bits and pieces of their lives and moving ahead. From Wapung to Samasi, to Kairang the people are looking for alternative livelihoods.
When along with the DBDU East Jaintia hills and EFC Khliehriat we conducted a SWOT analysis at Kairang village which is in the suburbs of Khliehriat we were surprised to learn that they identified agriculture, handicraft and livestock keeping as their strengths. Their weaknesses are lack of education, road communication and water supply and they have also realised that they have not been able to usurp the opportunities available like scenic beauty of the place and also cascading waterfalls, which can attract tourists to the area.
The village of about 80 households maintains a community forest as well as a forest which belongs to the Presbyterian Church and they are approaching the Wild Life Department of the Forest Department to register the same as community reserve. But they also realised that not being able to implement MNREGS and seize the opportunity available to develop the village is the major failure of the community. The people in the village fear that growing youths indulging in anti-social activities and particularly consuming intoxicating drinks is the major threat to the community.
The study not only brought to light the real strengths of the community, but we also learnt that they continue to engage in maintaining environmental sustainability by creating new community forests where there were no sacred forests before. Environment sustainability is in the system of the Khasi-Pnar tradition. It is ingrained not only in the psyche but in the very being of the people. It is also true that people continue to involve in the process of sustaining the environment in everything they do.