KumKum Dasgupta - The murderous attack on green activists in Meghalaya is an assault on our collective future
Social activist Agnes
Kharshiing is a well-known name in Meghalaya. Along with being a human rights
activist, she is also an environment defender of repute. On November 8, Kharshiing and another activist, A Sangma, were in the East
Jaintia Hills district to track and document cases of illegal mining. (In 2014,
the National Green Tribunal imposed a blanket ban on coal mining, once the
driver of Meghalaya’s economy.) While the two activists were conducting their
investigations, a group of 30-40 people encircled their car and attacked them
brutally.
Both are in hospital with severe injuries. Sources, a Hindustan Times
report said, point towards coal mafia being involved in the attack as
Kharshiing had shared several pictures of trucks ferrying coal illegally and
their dumping grounds. However, authorities are yet to confirm the identity of
the attackers. According to
‘Defenders of the Earth‘, a report released by international NGO, Global
Witness, in 2017, being an environmental activist in India is a dangerous
occupation. While Brazil tops the 2017 list with 49 deaths, India is ranked at
fourth with 16 deaths. India got a special mention in the 2017 report as one of
the countries where the situation is getting progressively worse, along with
Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But those who follow
environmental issues will argue that the number of deaths (16) does not reveal
the true picture: In the recesses of this large and diverse country, many cases
of attacks, harassments and threats go undocumented, and attackers go
unpunished. Unlike the police
firing on people protesting against Sterlite in Tamil Nadu or, for that matter,
the protests of Dongria Kondhs against Vedanta in Odisha, the attacks on
Kharshiing and Sangma went unnoticed on prime time.
But what is happening
in Meghalaya is a story that applies to all of the country... read more:
