It is evident that the half a score cement companies located in Jaintia Hills alone would need to expand their area of limestone mining to sustain their business in which the companies are heavily invested. It is also a travesty that most of the limestone is located in and around the Narpuh WildLife Sanctuary in East Jaintia Hills. Public hearings are the sine qua non for expanding the mining areas and these at best are conducted in the breach by the State Pollution Control Board. These hearings are meant to tick the boxes in government documents. As always, a public hearing on the expansion of mines is fraught. There are members of the surrounding communities that have foresight and are genuinely concerned about the environmental impacts of cement production. The fact that effluents from cement companies is what has virtually killed the Lukha river making it unsafe for riverine life should have made the communities revisit their priorities. After all, it’s a difficult choice between an environment that can sustain life and an industry that requires constant onslaught and erosion of this life sustaining environment.
It is a fact that large-scale mining operations, especially those using open-pit mining techniques, can result in significant deforestation through forest clearing and the construction of roads which open remote forest areas to transient settlers, land speculators, and miners owners. These settlers and miners are probably a greater threat to the biodiversity that exemplifies the north eastern region as a whole and Meghalaya in particular. The Narpuh Wildlife Sanctuary is known to be the home of the hoolock gibbons and whatever is left of them. This should have been the single most propelling reason to stop further alienation of forest land for mining purposes. But it appears that even those in charge of protecting the environment are mostly engaged in giving out environmental impact assessment (EIA) clearances to mining industries because they are also acting at the behest of the mining companies or are under pressure from central government authorities.
What is also of concern is the division within the community. While a section is against allowing further expansion of mining areas by cement companies, others are ready and willing to be part of the consensus group that is ready to part with community land and hence in direct confrontation with the dissenting group. This is what created the ruckus recently in East Jaintia Hills and led to a confrontation between these two groups. Whether the division is based on ignorance alone or the pursuit of wealth by one group and the futuristic vision of the other group is difficult to assess. Perhaps the time is not far off when the impact of encroachment into forest areas by people with mining interests will be felt. By then it might be too late as is the case with the several dozens of coke plants in the same district which have now been brought down courtesy the Meghalaya High Court.
