The CM's Silence on Nongkhlieh Speaks Volumes

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 cannot feign ignorance about the significant findings in the network of caves along the Shnongrim ridge.

A Cave That Has 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.

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 a certain cement company to establish its unit in the area. There is already an existing Jaintia Cement Ltd located at Latyrke village, the problem is now about the Shree cement plan at Daistong but before this issue is even resolved, we have this news about another one at Tongseng Nongkhlieh. 

Does the Chief Minister realize that permitting one cement plant to operate in the area is like opening a 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 Jaintia Hills. The reason: the Nongtalang-Amlarem-Syndai range was the first major obstruction to the monsoon winds arriving from the Bay of Bengal. Now that limestone mining has stripped away the hills in Nongtalang, it has almost certainly affected rainfall patterns across the Jaintia Hills.

The Narpuh area already has 10 cement plants, and there's Jaintia Cement under Eleka Sutnga. How many more cement plants does the government need? The most pertinent question is this: despite East Jaintia Hills having 11 cement plants, the district's economy is still in shambles, especially after the coal mining ban of 2014. Do cement plants actually help improve the local economy? The answer is clearly no.

Lafarge Abandoned Its Nongkhlieh Plan

In 2006, Lafarge planned to establish a mega cement plant at Shnongrim cap
able of producing 1 million metric tonnes a year. Along with local people, we protested against the plan, and the company abando

ned the idea. 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 Jaintia 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 in February 2008. 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? And on the contrary, why is the NPP so determined to let a cement plant set up shop there?

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 their rule, both in the state and at the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council, that these companies received permission to operate through a single-window policy. 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?

Past experience tells us that whenever Conrad stays silent, companies win the tussle. A case in point: the expansion of Star Cement's mining area was permitted despite violent protests from local people.

Does Conrad K. Sangma want to be remembered as the man who destroyed the cave system of Nongkhlieh? Is he really going to let India's longest cave be destroyed? The answer, like the old song says, is blowing in the wind.

Link of a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNjLn-_MU18