Earth cutting causes flood in Guwahati
SHILLONG: Environmental degradation along the inter-state border was one of the topics of discussion when the Chief Minister Mukul Sangma met his Assam counterpart Sarbananda Sonowal in Guwahati on Saturday.
Addressing the media after the meeting, which was focused on solving the boundary dispute, Sonowal said, “Those who are illegally cutting hills should be stopped and we will jointly deal with the matter.”
In 2014, the chairman of the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) had asked the Meghalaya Government to initiate measures to stop rampant deforestation and earth cuttings that were leading to flood in Assam’s capital.
Earlier, GMDA had said mitigation process can be initiated by “enacting a law, if necessary, and taking action to stop any further stripping of vegetative cover, rock quarrying, earth-cutting, avoidable construction and all such activities that cause land to get destabilised leading to generation of loose soil in the hills of Meghalaya adjoining Guwahati”.
It had even suggested the need to undertake proper land use planning in the Meghalaya hills to restrict further damage and instructed people to desist from practices that cause movement of silt downstream.