Meghalaya, a small State in the northeastern region of India, has an abundance of coal and limestone. About 9% of the country’s total limestone reserves are distributed across the State.
A land blessed by nature’s bounty, the State has been at the receiving end of human greed for resources that lie beneath its land, with uncontrolled coal mining and illegal limestone mining. Limestone mining is carried out by open cast method both in large- and small-scale levels. Many of these are illegal. The limestone mined is used chiefly for manufacturing products such as cement, lime and edible lime.
Long line of trucks carrying limestone that is mined from Meghalaya go to Bangladesh, a country with which it shares a border.
The West Janitia Hills in Meghalaya are being denuded and the increasing heat of summers, loss of forests, and loosening of the soil add to a climate crisis. Unauthorised transportation of illegally mined coal and limestone continues in Meghalaya while roadside dumping of coal is a major source of pollution.
While rat-hole mining have destroyed the hills in West Jaintia, open quarrying for limestone and sand-mining have hit Meghalaya. The State government has urged the people of the Jaintia Hills to stop illegal rat-hole mining of coal.
Rampant lime stone mining and open quarries dot the once green landscape, contributing to the rapid decline of forests and leaving the hills barren. The disappearing hillocks threaten the existence of community forests in the areas where stone quarrying is prevalent. While frequent sand mining and quarrying activities continue on one side, blasting of rocks to access limestone has been an ongoing phenomenon for the past few years, and many of these happen along the highway.
Scientific studies reveal that loss of forest cover, pollution of water, soil and air, depletion of flora and fauna, reduction in biodiversity, erosion of soil and instability of rock masses, changes in landscape and degradation of arable land are some of the conspicuous environmental implications of limestone mining.
