In Meghalaya there is not a single MLA who is an advocate of the environment. The state has been experiencing unprecedented rainfall this year and this is likely to exacerbate if we are to go by what climate scientists predict. Yet no MLA will call out illegal coal mining that carries on in the jungles of Jaintia Hills, West Khasi Hills and Garo Hills despite the ban by the National Green Tribunal. Trucks carrying limestone and boulders to Bangladesh by the thousands every day are making a killing. Hence the Truck Owners Association are pulling all the stops to impress upon the MLAs that without the limestone and boulders they would go out of business and therefore quarry and mine owners should be allowed to keep on cutting down forests and continue to dig and mine to their hearts content.
Those who advocate for mining and quarrying constitute a small number of influential elite who also contribute to political party coffers. It is well established that there are a few ‘high level’ coal mine owners who are also the biggest funders for the NPP, the UDP and the BJP. It is therefore not surprising that the South Shillong MLA, Sanbor Shullai has become a strong advocate for mining and quarrying and has used the Assembly as a platform for airing his views on behalf of those who stand to gain from quarrying and mining. Use of words like small miners/small quarries are misleading. Once quarrying starts there is no stopping it. And with the State Pollution Control Board reduced to a silent and mute spectator to environmental destruction, Meghalaya is soon set to become water deficient even as catchments and springs dry up due to rampant deforestation and quarrying.
It’s an irony that while Lafarge Cements have had to pay a heavy price for eco-restoration and to invest in economic and development activities of the areas surrounding the Nongtrai mines as a price for limestone mining there, the same yardstick is not applied for other miners on the plea that they are local indigenous persons. Can such double standards be accepted when the impact on the environment through mining is the same no matter who the miners are? Use of the word ‘minor minerals’ to define limestone is already very misleading, considering that hundreds of hectares of hills have been brought down along Shella-Nongtrai and the Jaintia Hills. Across Meghalaya there are 1700 quarries operating illegally. In the State Forest Department, the Officer in Charge, Territorial Division is responsible for granting ‘no objection certificates’ for quarrying and mining. And if there are 1700 illegal mines then the person heading the Territorial Wing of the Department should be answerable. Incidentally the VPP is also an enthusiast for restarting mining activities. Is this the reason why the VPP won over nearly all of Jaintia Hills in the recent Lok Sabha elections? Meghalaya’s tragedy is that there are no serious environmental activists that can take the matter to court and let it be adjudicated by those who understand that the environment is life itself. Killing the environment by mercenaries on a get rich quick mission will lead to human disaster, diseases and deprive us of water and clean air. Is this the Meghalaya we want?
