The United Democratic Party (UDP) which is an ally of the MDA government is in the Opposition in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council. Opposition leader, Titos Chyne who was a former MLA raised a point in the ongoing session that the Council should write to the State Government to exempt Meghalaya from the Mining and Minerals Development Regulation Act (MMDR) Act with latest amendments in November 2023. The MMDR Act does not speak about quarrying but is more concerned with mining leases especially of minerals designated as ‘critical.’ In Meghalaya the kind of quarrying that’s happening along the Rngain -Pynursla – Dawki stretch can be described as “horrific.” The boulders and sand are parcelled off in hundreds of trucks daily to Bangladesh.Studies worldwide have shown that there are several serious environmental impacts related to quarrying activities especially on and near the river. They include vibrations, land degradation, land subsidence and landslides, water pollution, occupational noise pollution, and air pollution. This in turn leads to health-related problems and loss of biodiversity. Quarrying operations can adversely alter pre-existing ecosystems, and change hydro-geological and hydrological regimes. This adverse influence of stone and sand quarrying induces damage in property, depletion of groundwater, loss of fertile topsoil, degradation of forests, deterioration in aquatic biodiversity and public health.
On the other hand, haphazard quarrying of sand from riverbeds causes a rapid change in bed configuration in response to the changes in flow. Quarrying basically destroys landscape. This can lead to downstream movement, scouring, or accumulation of sediment while provoking shoreline erosion. When riverbeds are composed of sand, this on-going pattern of erosion and deposition causes meanders to progress slowly downstream with time. It is rather strange therefore that neither the State Forest Department nor the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) have not conducted any studies to determine the environmental and ecological impacts of such unregulated quarrying in Meghalaya. While stone and sand quarrying may be required to meet the local and national needs there should be a limit on boulders being exported at the cost of serious ecological consequences.
The Councillor who raised the issue of allowing arbitrary quarrying argues that it is a livelihood and that stopping such activities would render many people to become unemployed. That is the most illogical and uneducated comment. Can livelihoods be created at the cost of environmental devastation? If so called political leaders argue that way and don’t have the capacity to think of innovative ways to create livelihoods for people, then Meghalaya is in serious danger of its ecology being destroyed by such short-sighted politicians. Climate change is a reality that’s already staring at the state. Changes in climate patterns have been witnessed but politicians will still look for shortcuts to retain their vote banks. Should people remain silent in such circumstances? Can there be a trade-off between the environment and livelihoods?
