By HH Mohrmen
Like every new government the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) with the hope of creating new livelihood opportunities for the people of the state (particularly the youths); went gung-ho in its endeavour to promote tourism. Conrad Sangma himself had visited Delhi to urge the central government to support MDA in its endeavour to promote tourism in the state. And the Chief Minister has also visited places like Shnongpdeng and seen with his own eyes how the crystal clear water of river Umngot had attracted visitors to the site from near and far.
Ironically, the leaders of this same MDA government are equally enthusiastic about lifting the ban on coal mining and the government is leaving no stone unturned to achieve the goal. The Chief Minister is moving from pillar to post to convince the central government to come up with ways and means to lift the ban on extraction and transportation of coal from the state. The question is whether in doing so isn’t the government trying to do two diametrically opposite thing at the same time?
Considering this development, the image that comes to my mind is that of a clown in a circus who tries to juggle with his two hands two or more balls at the same time. It also reminds me of a riddle I came across when I was a kid which is a challenge if I can guess the right answer. The riddle is that a trader had two bundles of consignment of five kilograms each which he intended to sell in a village across the river. The only problem is the boat can only carry one person and five Kg of goods at one go and because it was getting dark, that would be the boatman’s last trip of the day. The dilemma was how to transport the consignment across the river? So the answer is that the trader would have to juggle the load throughout the journey. In doing so, technically the boat is carrying within the capacity (a boatman, one passenger and a load of five kg of goods). The argument is because five kg of the goods is always in the air so it does not add to the total weight the boat carries. Sounds like good logic, right?
SO when it comes to subject of mining and tourism development, Meghalaya under the MDA government is also in a similar situation. It is a big boat no doubt but it can carry only so much. It cannot promote mining and tourism at the same time because the two are at odds with each other.
When it comes to development of tourism in the state, the question that the leaders of the MDA should ask themselves is, what is the state’s USP? Isn’t it true that tourists are attracted to our state because of the cascading waterfalls, the rolling green and blue hills, the crystal clear water, the forest and sacred groves and of course the exotic caves that we have. In short, people are attracted to our state because of the nature or the kind of nature that we have which includes clean air and a pleasant environment. Take away nature and there is nothing else left to see in Meghalaya. Period.
The leaders of the MDA government have not learned from history either. On several occasion this scribe has had open discussions with Conrad Sangma the incumbent Chief Minister of Meghalaya and highlighted the plight of the people who live in the villages downstream of the river Myntdu, Lukha and Kupli. The government also knows that the villages downstreams of these rivers would have benefited from tourism (which is a sustainable livelihood activity) if not for the fact that all the rivers in the area are all dead from mining. Villages like Botkhat, Kharkhana and other would have been able to attract tourists to the area had it not been for the kind of river that flows in the area. The previous governments which allowed random mining had betrayed them, so are we going to continue to neglect their plight?
Recently there were news reports of unnatural death of fishes in some of the major rivers of West Khasi hills district of the state, and from the press reports it is clear that the way the aquatic lives died and even the timing when the unfortunate incident occurred, is all too familiar to the people who are acquainted with the issue. In the past, similar incidents have occurred in all the major rivers in Jaintia hills where mass death of fishes were reported. The timing is crucial. It always happens during the beginning of the year and when the first major rainfall hits the area in which rain water carries all the toxic material to the rivers. This was the cause of the mass death of aquatic lives in the area, at least in Jaintia hills, but the KSU in the region suspected that the fishes died due other factors (without any scientific evidence to back their claims).
Of course one cannot conclude that the mass death of fishes in the West Khasi hills is only because of coal mining because drilling also happens in the area which the group alleges, has to do with uranium mining. Certainly one cannot rule out this factor too, but, one cannot also deny that the incidents are too similar to what the people in Jaintia hills have experienced. My fear is that we might miss the wood for the trees. The pressure group’s strategy of insisting that the death of aquatic life is from uranium mining could also be seen from another angle – They don’t want to be seen as groups who are not in the same page with the mining lobby.
Of course the MDA government has guaranteed that mining will be sustainable and protection of the environment will be taken care of, but the point is that we have seen what happened even when the NGT ban is in place. Although the government would not like to admit it, there is rampant mining going on in the different mining areas of the state in spite of the ban. Not only is illegal mining happening unabatedly, but there are cases of police apprehending trucks which illegally transport coal from the state again during the same period. In their efforts to transport coal illegally, trucks took a detour and travelled on village roads which are not made to carry more than ten tons to avoid being detected. There were also cases of transporters using fake challans to transport coal and where the same challan is used to transport many trucks of minerals at different points of time. These stories were reported by the media almost on a regular basis.
The claim that there are still huge amounts of extracted coal lying in the coal belt area is also pure exaggeration. The entire amount of extracted coal was transported a long time ago and the coal transported recently is freshly dug coal which was mined during the period when the NGT ban was in operation.
In such a situation where the law of the land is not respected, how can the government guarantee that the exploitation of minerals as well as protecting the environment will go hand in hand? The question of implementing or enforcing the protective mechanisms which the government hopes to introduce is an impossible task, especially when you have people who openly disregard the law of the land.
I can only write of areas which I am familiar with and if mining is allowed again and people in the areas like Jarain, Chkentalng start mining, then the livelihoods of people downstream the river Umngot will go for a toss and the story will be washed away to Bangladesh. People of Shnongpdeng, Darang, Dawki, Umsyiem who have earned their livelihood from tourism will be left high and dry because once the mining starts the first casualty will be the river. Even the famous Krangshuri waterfall which has become a major tourism attraction in the district will unfortunately lose its charm if mining upstream the river near Thanbuli village begins.
This is one area that the MDA government had failed to set it’s priority right; the government has no other option but to choose one over the other because it cannot have both at the same time. It is either tourism or mining and not both at the same time because the twain shall never meet. The state government is obviously in a big dilemma on this issue and no wonder people also called MDA; Meghalaya Dilemma Alliance or an alliance in a perpetual dilemma.