By Patricia Mukhim
Travelling to the rural outback of Meghalaya used to be a bonus because the greenery is lush and the forests beckon. Today we are greeted by barren hills that have been cut and sliced and diced by JCBs because boulders have to be gouged out and so must sand be mined from the bosom of our once thriving rivers. While construction demands that boulders, stone chips and sand be available, what is painful in the case of Meghalaya is that roughly about 300-400 trucks of boulders are traded to Bangladesh on a daily basis. As I have reiterated time and again, we are selling our entire environment to Bangladesh. Naturally the climate has changed and so has the countenance of many of our rivers. Those within Shillong city have become public drains. They are receptacles for septic tanks that release raw faecal matter directly into the rivers, not to speak of kitchen waste water.
Now when the Meteorology Department informs us that we are getting 52% less rainfall we moan that this is due to climate change. But who has pushed the climate to the edge if not us thoughtless, selfish and cruel humans! Any attempt to point to this crude exploitation of nature beyond its capacity to rejuvenate itself is termed as ‘elitist’ and of not understanding the need for generating livelihoods by selling boulders, sand, limestone, coal and perhaps at some distant stage even uranium. I find it a little troubling that the people who make such a brouhaha about uranium mining have nothing to say about the ruthless exploitation of the environment by those extracting and exploiting nature for commercial purposes without following any environmental laws. Meghalaya is in fact a lawless state. Anyone can do anything if he/she has the money to shut the mouths of meddlesome pressure groups.
This deep concern for the environment resurfaces every time we discuss climate change and how we are adapting and how climate resilient we are. I was having a conversation with Dr Abbas Kazim MPH, MBA currently attached to NEIGRIHMS. Dr Kazim is trying to understand whether the indigenous healing system practised by tribal healers is still largely prevalent and whether climate change has had any impact in terms of biodiversity loss and whether plants and trees they traditionally relied on for medicines are still available. We know that Khasi healers rely on indigenous methods of healing through use of leaves, roots, fruits, seeds and the bark of certain trees but it is doubtful if any study has been conducted so far about the dwindling population of such healing plants. The problem is that the traditional healing system has not been documented because healers don’t want to part with their knowledge system for fear that someone else would take away their livelihood.
It is only in recent times that several traditional healers congregated at Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU) where a seminar on Tribal Health and Well Being was organised by the University and jointly sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and the Indian Institute of Public Health. MLCU has come up with a book which is a treasure trove of knowledge and a product of extensive research by the University faculty over a period of several years. The book also titled, Tribal Health and Wellbeing in Meghalaya, India is perhaps the first of its kind that minutely documents everything that traditional healers have shared. The book is meant to address gaps in knowledge due to paucity of material on traditional healing practices. At the seminar the traditional healers displayed the different herbs, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds etc. to an interested audience and also explained how each was used to heal a particular ailment.
But Meghalaya need not have sunk this low insofar as transfer of knowledge to the younger generation is concerned. When we were growing up our mothers and grandmothers would tell us the names of plants, herbs and fruits and tell us what each one is used for what purpose. For instance, the leaf called Langtana iong in Khasi is very good at controlling bleeding due to cuts and wounds. It is pounded and put on the wound and will not only stop the bleeding but also remain on the cut until it dries. There are herbs like Ja-ngew, Jatira, Ja-lynshir, Ja-lyniar, Jamyrdoh etc., that were a necessary part of our diet. Some were bitter but elders would tell us that bitter herbs are good to flush out worms from our systems. In fact, Sohphlang – a root- is known to be very good at eliminating worms.
A good question is – how many of our young people today can recognise these medicinal herbs and roots. Recently on my visit to a school in the distant Raibah Village beyond Mawsynram, I was deeply impressed by the fact that the students knew the names of the herbs and the healing powers of each one. Of course, their elders walked alongside the students and one could see their mothers and grandmothers prompting them in case they were stuck on something. This is an excellent example of a bridge between the young and the old which is a precious link to tradition.
Ironically when we speak of culture and tradition today we tend to stress on the externalities only such as the dress, dances, musical instruments and songs and forget indigenous wisdom and health practices that saw our ancestors thrive to this day. They had a cure for everything. Young guava leaves crushed and mixed with water could cure diarrhoea and dysentery. They had a special kind of lemon (soh kwit) that they rubbed on the body and feet if someone had fever and the fever would subside. Garlic cooked in mustard oil would be used for curing sore throat and cough. Now you cannot even find mustard oil in most homes since we have started cooking with expensive oils.
Khasi society had bone setters and people who could heal muscle pain and spasm. That was a time when you didn’t have a pill for every ill. People lived far away from hospitals and health care centres and nursed their own fears and phobia about allopathic medicine. I guess it also has to do with psychology. Our bodies listen to our minds and if the message is that taking a herbal potion can heal an ailment then I guess the body listens. I am not discounting the power of allopathy but we cannot rule out the healing power of herbs, roots, seeds, fruits etc which is also what Ayurveda is all about.
The education system today has divorced us from our roots, particularly schools and colleges located in urban centres. In rural Meghalaya indigenous knowledge still resides but for how long if the education imparted is so disconnected from our roots? Nature rambling and taking students to nearby forests once in a while will actually make them touch base with their roots. It is in such informal settings that students will ask questions and take back some knowledge home which they will then share with their parents and this would ignite a healthy conversation. There is so much indigenous wisdom that needs to be recorded before it is lost forever.
The book mentioned above states that the estimated use of tribal medicine across rural households in Meghalaya was 79.1% with 31.5% reporting frequent use and 65.6% reporting that they sometimes used it. Tribal medicine was believed to be efficacious by 87.5%. Tribal medicine was reportedly used for both minor and major ailments however the preference was more for minor ailments.
The purpose of this write-up is amongst other concerns the loss of bio-diversity due to rampant deforestation for operating quarries and for burning wood to convert to charcoal. Biodiversity loss also means that the indigenous herbs, trees, flowers, fruits and seeds would have disappeared too. Is anyone even concerned about this? We have the District Councils but they seem to live in a parallel universe quite oblivious of their primary and sacred duty to protect the environment. The dorbar shnong, many led by those motivated by money rather than conservation, have done us great harm.
The question to ask and debate about is – what are we leaving for our future generation when greed seems to be the driving factor and tradition just a ruse to continue to exploit the environment? I wish the District Councils respond to this article. The MLAs don’t care which way the wind blows as long as people are fooled to elect them again and again. Show me one MLA that has taken up the cause of the environment in the Assembly! Not one! That’s Meghalaya the land that clouds our minds, dims our eye-sights and clogs our ears. Hence we see no evil and hear only good music that makes us sleepwalkers! The environment be damned!
