By H H Mohrmen
While we appreciate the government’s stand on uranium mining in the state, we wonder why the Chief Minister is silent on the issue of setting up a cement plant in the Nongkhlieh area. The importance of the Shnongrim Ridge in the cave history of the state has been well documented and widely highlighted. The government therefore cannot feign ignorance about the significant findings in the network of caves along the Shnongrim Ridge.
Caves That Have Become History
Limestone mining, especially where cement plants are involved, is a quick way to destroy a forest and the cave system beneath it. Take the example of Krem Kotsati Umlawan in Lumshnong village, measuring 21,530 metres. After cement plants were allowed to operate in the Narpuh area, it is no longer safe to even enter the cave. With rampant limestone mining in the area, which also relies on explosives, the cave has effectively been destroyed. It may not be wrong to say that Krem Kotsati Umlawan is now becoming part of history.
Another cave that has been affected by the now-decommissioned Cherra Cement Company is the Mawkhyrdop/Mawmluh Cave; where some of its tunnels have been blasted open (Tringham, 2012). The cave is located near Cherrapunji itself. In just a few decades, since cement plants started operating in the state, we have already lost some of our most valuable caves.
Nongkhlieh Is Going the Narpuh Way
I was in the Nongkhlieh area a few months back, and when I visited a nearby village, I was shocked to learn that the Dorbar Chnong of Tongseng Nongkhlieh village has also issued a No Objection Certificate for another cement company to set up shop in the area. There is already an existing Jaiñtia Cement Ltd. located at Latyrke, a village on the way to Nongkhlieh Eleka and the Saipung area. The question is: what will happen if the government allows these two more plants to start operating at Nongkhlieh?
Does the Chief Minister realize that permitting one cement plant to operate in the area is like opening Pandora’s Box, one that will lead to another, and another, and ultimately destroy the entire region?
Narpuh, Nongtalang, and Now Nongkhlieh
Nongtalang and Shella extracted limestone for export to Bangladesh, and the people of Nongtalang do not seem to have benefited economically from the trade. The extraction came at the cost of the environment and may also be a cause of the diminishing rainfall in the Jaiñtia Hills. The reason is that the Nongtalang Amlarem Syndai range was the first major obstruction to the rain-laden monsoon winds arriving from the Bay of Bengal before they proceeded to the Jaiñtia Plateau. Now that limestone mining has stripped away the hills in Nongtalang, it has almost certainly affected rainfall patterns across the Jaiñtia Hills.
The Narpuh area already has ten cement plants, and there is Jaiñtia Cement under Eleka Sutnga. How many more cement plants does the government need? The most pertinent question is this: despite East Jaiñtia Hills having eleven cement plants, the district’s economy is still not improving as expected. One would have thought that cement projects would help support the economy of this mineral-rich district, especially after the coal mining ban of 2014. The question is: do cement plants actually help improve the local economy? The answer is clearly “No.”
Lafarge Abandoned Its Nongkhlieh Plan
In 2010, Lafarge planned to establish a mega cement plant at Shnongrim capable of producing one million metric tonnes of cement a year. Along with local people, we protested against the plan, and the company abandoned the idea. At one point, an executive from the company even called me, trying to arrange a meeting, to which I politely excused myself because I did not think it was right for us to meet. I also recall receiving an email from a person in France. I responded to all the queries in the email but did nothing beyond that. We were, however, left bewildered because we did not know why Lafarge had so suddenly and easily decided to abandon its mission.
It was only when I read the book published by Thomas Arbenz for the Abode of Clouds Project in 2012 that it dawned on me why the company had called off the mission. Dr. Mark E. Tringham, PhD, FGS, UK Chartered Geologist, explained why the company backed out. Writing in Cave Pearls of Meghalaya (A Cave Inventory Covering the Jaiñtia Hills, Meghalaya, India, Volume 1: Pala Range and Kopili Valley), Dr. Tringham described how a Lafarge delegation visited the Caving in the Abode of Clouds Expedition on Shnongrim Ridge. After learning that the area held some of India’s most spectacular caves, including Krem Liat Prah, India’s longest cave, the company chose to abandon its large-scale cement project, even though some of the land had already been purchased (Tringham, 2012).
The question the government needs to ask itself is this: what makes Nongkhlieh so special that even a multinational company decided to step back and leave nature alone? Can we expect the NPP-led government to at least try to understand why Lafarge thought that protecting the area was more important than the profit it could earn from the project? On the contrary, why is the NPP so determined to let a cement plant set up shop there?
What Lafarge Understood
The incident taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my life: that a multinational company, at least in this case, still respected the sentiments of the local people and demonstrated a sense of ethics in how it conducted its business. Credit should be given where credit is due. In this instance, the company allowed its moral compass to guide its decision. Unlike some Indian cement companies, whose only objective seems to be profiteering, with little regard for either the environment or the people who call these hills home.
I used to share the Nongkhlieh story of 2010 every now and then as an example of how a community can decide its own fate. But now I have to add another chapter to that story: the story of a company that considered nature important enough to abandon its mission despite spending money lobbying the government, engaging the public and even purchasing land. It was an instance where a company believed that leaving nature untouched was far more valuable than the profit it could generate from operating a business. It is perhaps the first time that we have witnessed a company declaring that green is not only the colour of money, but also the colour of nature. Now, what does this story tell us about our government?
The Legacy the NPP Will Leave Behind
The Congress Party was blamed for the mushrooming of cement plants in the Narpuh area because it was during its rule, both in the state and at the Jaiñtia Hills Autonomous District Council, that these companies received permission to operate through a single-window policy. The condition of the villages where the cement plants are located is for everyone to see: locals have lost ownership of their land, and their environment is polluted.
Is history about to repeat itself now that the NPP leads both the state government and the JHADC by opening the same Pandora’s Box for Nongkhlieh? On the other hand, the question also arises: why is there no interest in starting a cement plant in the Garo Hills despite the region having large limestone reserves?
When CM’s Silence Is Deafening
Past experience tells us that whenever the Chief Minister stays silent, companies win the tussle. Time and again, public opinion has been ignored in favour of corporate interests. On 20 March 2019, despite public protests against the public hearing conducted by the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board and the Deputy Commissioner of East Jaiñtia Hills for the expansion of Star Cement’s limestone mining, the project was given the green light. Again, on 24 August 2023, despite protests against the public hearing held at Thangskai village to discuss the expansion of M/s Meghalaya Cement Ltd. (Topcem) from 2,600 tonnes per day (TPD) to 4,500 TPD, permission was granted.
Now, despite widespread opposition to the proposed cement plant in Nongkhlieh Eleka, Conrad Sangma’s response has been a deafening silence. Does Conrad K. Sangma want to be remembered as the Chief Minister under whose watch the cave system of Nongkhlieh was destroyed? Is he really prepared to let India’s longest cave be sacrificed?
The answer lies with the Chief Minister himself because, under the single-window policy, the buck stops at his table. Will he take a leaf out of Lafarge’s book and declare Nongkhlieh a protected area once and for all, or will he open the floodgates and allow Nongkhlieh to suffer the same fate as Narpuh?
