The river Lukha used to be a source of livelihood for hundreds of fisherman and women in the downstream villages like Tongseng, Sakhri, Sunapyrdi, Shymplong Lejri and others but since the fateful February of the year 2007, this regular phenomenon has robbed the people of their source of livelihood and even rendered the river water unfit for human consumption. People even avoid using the river complaining that taking a bath in the contaminated water causes skin diseases.

After the first incident of 2007 due to public pressure, the Meghalaya Pollution Control Board conducted an investigation to find out the cause of the discolouration of the river and the mass death of fishes in the river. The report attributed the cause to coal mining, but many people even experts in the area from the NEHU are not convinced and now the regular occurrence of the winter discolouration and mass death of fishes has raised doubts on the results of the study.

Lukha is not the first river in the Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya which was affected by coal mining, Myntdu, Waikhyrwi, Kupli and other rivers which flow through the coal mining areas are polluted to the extent that no aquatic life can be found in these rivers. In the case of all the mentioned rivers, the pollution of the water in the rivers has been consistent but the Lukha case is peculiar in the sense that it is a regular annual affair. In the case of the other dead rivers of the district, the death occurred once and for all but that is not the case of Lukha.

Both coal and limestone mining have continued their onslaught on the river bodies, but the case of the river Lukha is unique in the sense that the river not only flows through the coal and limestone mining areas, but is also passes through the Narpuh area where many cement plants are located. More importantly, the Lukha also flows around the Narpuh reserve forest, the last remaining forest area in the district. The government needs to act immediately by commissioning an independent body to investigate the cause of the strange phenomena in the river Lukha. The big question is, can the proposed Mining Policy of the state save the rivers of Jaintia Hills? The policy, (if at all is legislated in the next seating of the house) will be four decades late because mining in the area started since the late seventies. It will also be too little too late for Jaintia hills. By the time the mining policy is adopted, the rivers will be polluted beyond redemption and forests in the district will be denuded and even the caves which are our natural heritage will be things of the past.

H.H. Mohrmen