By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Aug 21: The Meghalaya government has expressed concern over the proposed limestone mining at Dima Hasao, bordering Meghalaya, in Assam as it will have an impact on the caves and the community reserve forests of the state.
While speaking to The Shillong Times, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Ranjit Singh Gill on Wednesday said that he had attended the first meeting of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) held on June 19 where he had highlighted the concerns of the Meghalaya government on the proposed limestone mining in Assam extending to the caves of Meghalaya which will also have an impact on the community reserve.
According to him, in the first meeting, he had placed the letter of the Chief Secretary of Meghalaya with the CEC highlighting the risk of such mining on the community reserves in the adjoining track of the reserves in Meghalaya.
“We are very concerned with maintaining the ecological integrity of the caves in Meghalaya and the protection of the community reserve especially on the fact that the mining in Assam may potentially affect the community reserve in Meghalaya,” Gill, who is also the Head of Forest Force Meghalaya, said.
Meanwhile, he also informed that an officer was instructed to attend the second meeting of the CEC on August 14.
“We are still in the process of verifying why the officer who was assigned did not attend the second meeting of the CEC as he was duly instructed to attend the meeting,” Gill said.
The PCCF said that they will take all steps to bring the matter to notice of the CEC.
It may be mentioned that Dima Hasao is all set to have major limestone mining at the corporate scale.
The Assam government had advertised that it intends to put up for bidding seven limestone and one iron ore block in the state. All the seven limestone blocks fall under Dima Hasao.
Limestone mining is conducted using the blasting technology which poses serious threats to the environment. These blocks are engulfed by the Kopli river, which is the lifeline of the district. The pollution caused by mining and its downstream activities are questions that have not been addressed.
What is worrying for Meghalaya is that the advertised limestone blocks adjoin the natural caves of ecological importance within Meghalaya. The blasting during the mining operations and the dust during the operations of cement manufacturing will impact the ecologically sensitive natural caves.
These caves have been notified by the Government of India as being ecologically sensitive and attract foreign tourists and speleologists.
Since the inception of auctioning of mineral blocks, no state government has announced blocks in such large numbers from one particular district/region. A stage for a bigger catastrophe is being set.
As per information on the Parivesh portal of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the community reserves of which Ka Krem Labit Umkyrpong is one, is just about 200 metres from the limestone block (in Dima Hasao) on the other side of the Kopli river.
Apart from Krem Labit Umkyrpong, the cave that will be most affected is Krem Liat Prah which is the longest natural cave in Asia with an explored length of 30,957 metres. This cave is about 8 km from the limestone blocks while Krem Tynheng in Samasi village is about 5 km away.
These are also areas where the Amur Falcons come to roost on their way from Siberia to Africa.