In an effort to engage and promote participative governance with people-centric agenda in mind, Forests and Environment Minister James K Sangma today met with passionate promoters of the environment for a discussion on new development and growth strategy for forests, environment and climate change in the Meghalaya.
The idea behind this is to reach out to the people at ground zero who are dedicated to the environment and who understand the subject in a practical manner.
Sangma said, according to a press release, “I want to create an environment leadership paradigm for Meghalaya through participative governance where people’s views and suggestions are considered for a better future. With Covid, it has jolted all of us and has opened up the vulnerabilities of the systems which need to be tackled with a sense of urgency.”
The three people he had a sit-down with were Naba Bhattacharjee, Morningstar Khongthaw and Nicholas J Kharnami.
Bhattacharjee, who is a retired forest officer, suggested, “We need to follow the traditional values and ethos of the tribal people in the state in order to preserve and protect our forests. The value system and belief of the Khasi, Jaiñtia and Garo people needs to be restored if we want to protect the environment.”
Khongthaw, the founder of the Living Bridge Foundation, which is known for maintaining living root bridges in Rangthylliang village in Pynursla, said, “The need of the hour is to have a practical curriculum where students are hands-on when it comes to the study of the environment. Students should be able to touch, see and grow plants and trees and not just read about them in a classroom.”
He further added that spreading awareness in the state about the value of preserving living roots bridges through different traditional skill set and art form would help in securing our heritage and culture.
Kharnami, an RJ and founder of Partners of Pla Iew, said, “We have lost our traditional values due to globalization and to take better care of nature and the environment it is important that we go back to our roots and value system.”
At the same time, he suggested that economic activity of the people has to be taken into consideration to ensure sustainable livelihood and to protect the environment.
Sangma stated that the government is looking at bio-patents for living root bridges in the state through a technology called Baubotanik. He also added that he is proposing that the government introduce climate change studies in schools as he thinks the world is fast turning into a bio-economy where sustainability will have to be the norm going forward.
“We are a young state and I am looking at this as an opportunity to reverse deforestation and turn this into a regenerative economy,” he highlighted.
