Shillong, Aug 9: The first question that TUR wishes to ask is do we really need this ropeway?
This waa the question raised by TUR leader Angela Rangad in a statement issued on Sunday.
“Many who have commented on this project begin by qualifying that they are not against development but…
We wish to reiterate that we are against such mindless shortsighted infrastructure projects that cannot be labelled as people centric development aimed at overall progress, but as merely a tourism gimmick that threatens water security and safety of majority of the residents of the area and beyond”, Angela said.
The Shillong Peak Ropeway Project is nothing short of a lack of long term vision even in terms of tourism development in state. “Tourists come to Meghalaya for its natural beauty that is rapidly being erased by steel towers and cookie cutter ugly buildings and malls that have replaced the local architecture that lent a quaint and unique skyline in these hills. This wasteful spending of public money could have been put to better use developing more walking trails along the forests and affording gainful employment for local youth and residents in terms of guides and local shops along a picturesque route as opposed to one time hefty contracts to a select few for construction of this project”, she added.
The government’s claims of “minimal environmental impact,” is also unacceptable. Forests act as ecological sponges and removing canopy cover disrupts subsurface aquifers and local microclimates. Even if the felling does not occur directly above active streams, clear-cutting a contiguous forest cover on slope gradients alters runoff behaviour across the entire ecosystem. Cutting down 545 trees will permanently disrupt the catchment area and dry up local streams, rendering distant, out-of-district compensatory afforestation is completely useless to the local ecosystem and will in no way replenish the immediate watershed. We must remember that it is not only the residents of the nearby localities that get their water supply from here but that this range and eco system that is already overdrawn, supplies water to many other parts of shillong. Further, deforestation on steep, rain-heavy slopes also directly increases the risk of severe landslides and destabilisation of the hills over a wide area, she said.
The spending upwards of Rs 151 crore on a luxury tourist ride is a slap on the face of residents suffering from daily water shortages, poor roads, and inadequate public transport. An isolated 896-meter cable line will do nothing to solve Shillong’s congestion and mobility. Instead, it will draw thousands of tourist vehicles into narrow residential sectors, causing massive traffic bottlenecks.
Recent statements by Paul Lyngdoh who pushed this project when he was Tourism minister that the ropeway will also be used by workers and for ferrying farming produce appears to be a newly added fib aimed at further misleading the public given the rising opposition to the project. His dismissive stance on threats posed to wildlife in the area as a result of their habitat destruction is also deplorable.
No public consultations
“What is even more appalling is that this project has been pushed through without broad public consultations, hearings or genuine community consent. The public also needs answers with regards to the functioning of the local governance systems and the undermining of the traditional conventions of decision making. What is this shift in language to Riat Laban from the historical Raid Laban in official statements? Which one supposedly approached the Govt. for this project? Is a Dorbar Pyllun only the functionaries of the Dorbars of the respective localities that make up the Riat / Raid Laban pyllun? Traditionally is it not meant to be a gathering of all ‘ki khun ki hajar’ or citizens under the Raid? Isn’t there a clear attempt to bypass traditional land custodianship and decision making? The Government stated that the project was requested by the local Dorbar years ago. However, widespread public pushback demonstrates that general citizens were kept in the dark. A selective consultation with a small group of representatives does not constitute broad community consent. There is clear institutional overreach that needs urgent scrutiny”, she said.
TUR demanded that the Shillong peak ropeway project be halted as it cannot be evaluated solely on engineering blueprints and false promises of economic revenue. The long-term costs—ranging from unstable hill slopes and depleted aquifers to compromised local governance—outweigh the short-term benefits of an expensive tourist attraction that will also most likely become unfeasible and non operational sooner than we imagine, adding to the graveyard of such projects that were more informed by shortsighted greed of a few at the expense of the greater common good of the many who were never even given an opportunity to be heard to begin with”, Angela added.
