By Philip Marwein
The front-page news item “Bishops in North East Raise Alarm Over Climate Change: Vows Action,” (ST September 18, 2022) has touched a chord in me. I am mentally hurt, very perturbed, highly agitated and brutally wounded to witness with my own eyes the gradual disappearance of the thick virgin forests with valuable deciduous trees in many parts of Khasi-Jaintia and Garo Hills beginning from early 1967-1968 to 1976-1979. Their rapid disappearance happened from 1980-81 onwards till 1993-94 when almost all these hills and dales turned barren except some parts of government reserved forests and a few patches of the Khasi Hills District Council plantations and some jungles in private lands.
This has serious effects on climate change reducing rainfall and shrinkage of water bodies due to depletion of water from catchment areas. There has been rampant and indiscriminate degradation of the environment through coal and limestone mining, quarrying and sand mining thereby eroding the earth’s crust and causing pollution to water bodies which gradually began from the early 1970s. The pace has increased since 1981-82 and became a mad race from 1992-93 till date and has seen no respite despite interventions from the apex court. The implementation of central laws and rules in the form of ban on mining of coal and other minerals mining and their extraction has fallen on deaf ears.
For taking up this crucial issue I must profusely thank Bah Toki Blah for his splendid article which has incited me to pen this response related to the environmental crisis we face today and which has a direct impact on climate change. Toki Blah’s spontaneous reaction to the above-mentioned news item has provoked me to think aloud at our collective apathy at this looming environmental crisis. I fully endorse the views of Toki Blah and agree with the suggestions given therein and I appeal to the powers that be and to stakeholders to take his valuable suggestions with the seriousness they deserve and to implement them with commitment. I also appeal to land owners with vast tracks of land as well as those who may possess smaller plots not only to grow crops but also to plant mixed species of valuable indigenous trees in those vacant lands and not to leave any plot of land vacant in towns or villages because green crops and trees help to absorb carbon dioxide and monoxide and thereby, help reduce the thick layer of carbon presence in the atmosphere which is the accumulated cause of the increasing heat in our atmosphere and the much debated and talked about Climate Change.
As one of many who is concerned about the continued indiscriminate loot and plunder of natural resources in this land and also the criminal discharge of toxic wastes into our water bodies and air which has resulted in climate change, I feel that the 2023 elections should be based on this agenda. It is man’s insatiable greed that is behind all these environmental onslaughts. These human crimes against nature which continue unabated in spite of various resolutions adopted and declarations emerging from many Earth Summits beginning from Rio in 1992 from many other countries thereafter have seen very few countries sticking to their commitments of carbon reductions and in implementing the resolutions adopted at these earth summits.
Now, coming back to the NE Bishops’ conclave in Mumbai, it is very strange that the Bishops of North East Region responded feebly and rather late in the day to the environmental catastrophe which has already taken a toll in our country and particularly, here in our own North Eastern Region. This is very shameful, highly irresponsible and reprehensible on the part of these prominent church leaders of the region. They should have been prompt in responding to the major crisis with practical actions many years back when they saw with their own eyes on how the virgin forests and other natural resources of this region were plundered and looted by timber merchants, mineral barons and other anti-social elements in collusion with government agencies as stated by one of the Bishops who was part of the conclave.
Other natural resources like coal, limestone, silimanite, sand stones, mica, iron ore etc., are all indiscriminately looted and the land is laid waste everywhere disfiguring the beautiful landscapes given by God to us. The Bishops’ conclave on environment and climate change is nothing short of tokenism considering that the environment is already battered. In fact, these Bishops are jolly well satisfied with their cloistered dogma of saving souls and have remained aloof and indifferent within their comfort zones and ivory towers when all these ecological crises were happening before their eyes. Ironically, their leaders, the different Popes to whom they owe allegiance from Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI et al have issued encyclicals (letters to the faithful) stressing and appealing to people of goodwill on the same thing, “to protect and safeguard planet earth from degradation and all debasements.” They should have learnt from renowned Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew who repeatedly appealed and persuaded all people, the stakeholders of the planet “to acknowledge their sins against creation. Bartholomew wrote, “For human beings to destroy the biological diversity of the earth by causing changes in its climate; by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying it’s wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, it’s land, it’s air, and it’s life – all these are sins”. He adds, ” To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God.”
The Bishops should have led a sustained crusade for integrity of the earth and for which cause should have pushed them to lead from the front by openly denouncing the evil of looting and plundering God’s gift to man, the natural wealth of the ‘Common Home’, the Earth. The Bishops of NER spent maximum time in spiritual exercises, contemplations, reflections on the word of god, preaching and exhorting the faithful to work hard to save their souls but have done nothing to preach and teach to the people of God on the environmental depletion, degradation, ecological crisis that pushes humankind and other living creatures to the brink of extinction from this wonderful planet.
Following in the footsteps of the Popes, the North East Bishops/Arch-Bishops should have issued many encyclicals on environmental destruction, ecological crisis and climate change. They should have been the first ones to spread awareness, teach, preach, mobilise and lead the people from the front in their respective jurisdictions in the war of protecting, conserving and preserving the planet earth from total destruction that it is facing today. Where are the pastoral letters issued by them not only on faith and morals but also on social teachings and exhortations on this vital issue of environmental and ecological crisis and other burning social issues that afflict society? Perhaps others might have seen them but, as for me, I have not seen any. In fact, the last pastoral letters were issued a long time ago by (Late) Hubert D’ Rosario, SDB, DD, Arch-Bishop of Shillong-Guwahati. His pastoral letters were staunchly firm in dealing with issues of faith and morals. On the environment he called upon the faithful and all stakeholders to unitedly join hands to protect planet earth from continued depletion and degradation due to insatiable greed of man, thereby endangering himself and other living beings. Archbishop Rosario was intelligent and had a towering personality. He was a disciplinarian and commanded respect both from the clerics and the laity and wore an aura of authority yet he was amiable, approachable, a man of god and when he preached, he did it with authenticity and sincerity. Such men alas no longer walk this earth!