SHILLONG, April 30— The Government of Meghalaya has ordered immediate closure of at least eleven saw mills in the state which were found to be working in gross violation of the Supreme Court order banning timber movement. The apex court, on January 15, 1998 had issued an order banning timber movement based on public interest litigation (PIL) lodged in 1995 seeking the court’s intervention to check depletion of forest cover in the country in general and the north eastern region in particular.
Sources in the Forest Department said that on inquiry that the eleven saw mills, located in parts of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills districts, were found to have been operating in a clandestine manner over a long period of time. Talking to reporters, Principal Conservator of Forests in Meghalaya, V.K. Nautiyal said, although the state government had ordered the closure of the erring saw mills ‘long back’, the mill owners took it ‘very casually’ and went on running the mills. This prompted the forest department to seek the assistance of the state authorities to ensure ‘stricter measures’ in the past one month, Nautiyal said.
However, the issue took a fresh turn as the State Excise Minister P.T. Sawkmie and a few other ministers, in whose constituencies some of the mills were located, wanted to know from the forest department the rationale behind the order. Nautiyal said the Excise Minister was ‘very understanding’ during a discussion on the issue with him here on Wednesday, although there had been reports in a section of the press which said Sawkmie was ‘angry’ over the move to close down the saw mills. It may be mentioned here that the economy of rural Meghalaya, as in other states of the North- east was adversely affected in the wake of the Supreme Court’s blanket ban on felling of timber.
The majority of the rural populace in Meghalaya depends on forest produce for their livelihood and timber business had been flourishing prior to the Court order. However, environmental activists and several prominent NGOs of the state had welcomed the move of the apex court to save the rich flora and fauna of the state, which had been mercilessly destroyed.