The Khliehriat unit of the East Jaiñtia National Council (EJNC) has come out against oil palm cultivation in Meghalaya as it could prove detrimental to the state’s ecology.
The EJNC penned a letter to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and handed this over to the East Jaiñtia Hills Deputy Commissioner today in this regard.
The unit’s general secretary, Mebanteilang Sukhlain said that the Centre’s decision to push cultivation of oil palm in the North East does not take into account the region’s biodiversity and is a step-motherly move.
He highlighted the environmental destruction wrought on South East Asia where oil palm plantations have necessitated the wanton felling of the region’s rainforests.
Although the EJNC accepted that cultivation of the crop will add to the economy and create jobs, it “involves a huge trade-off between money and environment”.
Such employment and economic benefits will only be short-lived, it added, but the destruction to the forests and the ruining of the tribal way of life is not.
Before any such move to introduce oil palm cultivation in Meghalaya, a wide environmental and socio-cultural impact assessment should be carried out and consultations held with civil society, NGOs, etc, Sukhlain added.
