District Survey Report

DISTRICT SURVEY REPORT RIVER SAND MINING OR RIVER BED MINING WEST GARO HILLS DISTRICT, MEGHALAYA AS PER NOTIFICATION NO. S.O. 3611(E) NEW DELHI, THE 25th JULY,2018 OF MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE, GOVT. OF INDIA Compiled by: Chairman Nodal Officer Member Secretary District Level Task Force, Smt. R.K. Sangma, MFS, District Level Task Force, West Garo Hills Divisional Forest Officer, Social Forestry Division, West Garo Hills, Tura West Garo Hills, Tura DISTRICT SURVEY REPORT 2 Sl. No. Contents Page No. 1. INTRODUCTION 1-7 2. OVERVIEW OF MINING ACTIVITY IN THE DISTRICT 8 3. THE LIST OF MINING LEASES IN THE DISTRICT WITH LOCATION, 9-14 AREA AND PERIOD OF VALIDITY 4. DETAIL OF ROYALTY OR REVENUE RECEIVED IN LAST THREE YEARS 5. DETAIL OF PRODUCTION OF SAND OR BAJARI OR MINOR 15 MINERAL IN LAST THREE YEARS 6. PROCESS OF DEPOSITION OF SEDIMENTS IN THE RIVERS OF THE 15-16 DISTRICT 7. GENERAL PROFILE OF THE DISTRICT 17-34 8. LAND UTILIZATION PATTERN IN THE DISTRICT : FOREST, 34-36 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, MINING ETC. 9. PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE DISTRICT 37-38 10. RAINFALL : YEAR WISE 39-40 11. GEOLOGY AND MINERAL WEALTH OF WEST GARO HILLS 40-43 DISTRICT 12. DISTRICT WISE DETAIL OF RIVER OR STREAM AND OTHER SAND SOURCE 13. DISTRICT WISE DETAIL OF AVAILABILITY OF SAND OR GRAVEL OR 44 AGGREGATE RESOURCES 14. DISTRICT WISE DETAIL OF EXISTING MINING LEASES OF SAND 45 AND AGGREGATES 15. DRAINAGE SYSTEM WITH DESCRIPTION OF MAIN RIVERS 46-47 16. SALIENT FEATURES OF IMPORTANT RIVERS & STREAMS 48 17. MINEABLE POTENTIAL (RIVER WISE) 48-54 18. SATELLITE MAPS 55-64 3 1. INTRODUCTION West Garo Hills is one of the largest districts of Meghalaya located in the western part of the State. The Garo Hills district was divided into five districts, viz the West Garo Hills district, the East Garo Hills district, South Garo Hills district, North Garo Hills district and South West Garo Hills district. The district headquarters of West Garo Hills is Tura, which is the second largest town in the State after Shillong. The West Garo Hills district lies on the western part of the state of Meghalaya bounded by the East Garo Hills district on the east, the South Garo Hills on the south-east, the North Garo Hills on the north and South West Garo Hills on the west and Bangladesh on the south. The total geographical area of the district is 2855 Sq. Km. The district is situated approximately between the latitudes 90° 30' and 89° 40' E, and the longitudes of 26° and 25° 20' N. West Garo Hills district is pre-dominantly inhabited by the Garo, a tribe with a matrilineal society belonging to the Bodo family of the Tibeto-Burman race tribes. Other indigenous inhabitants are the Hajongs, Rabhas, Koches, Rajbansis, Meches, Kacharis and Dalus. The district is also inhabited by Bengalis, Assamese, Nepalese, Marwaries, Biharis and people from other parts of India. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The early history of the Garos is shrouded in mystery. The forefathers of the Garos allied to Koches, Chutiyas, Kacharis and Meches came from the north-west. Another tradition ascribing some support to this theory, maintains that the Garos are descended from their forefathers in Asong Tibetgori. The Garos in the Kamrup plain, recount a tradition that their forefathers came eastward from the Himalayas and reached Gondulghat where they made a brief halt, and on leaving that place, traversed to Sadiya, from where they trekked on into the north bank of Brahmaputra. After a long westward trail, they reached Amingaon. There in the north bank their life was not secure, they crossed the Bahmaputra river and came to occupy Kamakhya. They occupied it for some generations until the Koches came to invade the Garo Kingdom. From Gauhati, wave after wave of westward migration poured to the Garo outer hills, and later on penetrated the interior hills of their present abode. Probably who those crossed the hills and advanced further south to Mymensing in Bangladesh were the earliest immigrants whereas those who came later on, now confined into their present settlement at Goalpara and Kamrup, belonged to the later immigrants. If critically examined, the ancient history of Garos would seem to have been a period marked by persistent and tenacious internal warfare and many blood-feuds seem to seem to have occurred between families or villages and between neighbouring Chiefs or Nokmas. Medieval Period With the passage of time in the medieval period, while the Garos in the hills were still divided into a number of petty Nokmaships, the plain tracts along the fringes at the foot of the hills came to be included in the many Zamindari Estates, which eventually developed into fewer but larger complexes. During the medievalera and the Mughal period, the more important estates bordering the Garo Hills were Karaibari, Kalimalupara, Mechpara and Habraghat in Rongpur district, Susang and Sherput in 4 Mymensing district of Bengal and Bijini in the Eastern Duars. Early records describe the Garos as being in a state of intermittent conflict with Zamindars of these large estates. Modern Period The contact between the British and the Garos started towards the close of the 18th Century after the British East India Company had secured the Diwani of Bengal from the Mughal Emperor. Consequently, all the estates bordering upon Garo Hills, which for all practical purposes had been semi-independent were brought under the control of the British. Though political control had passed from the Mughals to the British, the latter, like Mughals, had no desire to control the Estates or their tributaries directly. The Zamindars were not disturbed in the internal management of their estates. In fact, they were entrusted, as they had been by the Mughals, with the responsibility of keeping the hill Garos in check with help of their retainers Thus in the beginning, the intermittent conflict between the Zamindars and the Garos went on unabated until the situation deteriorated to the extent that the British were forced to take notice. This development led ultimately to the annexation of the Garo Hills in 1873. Captain Williamson was the first Deputy Commissioner of the unified district. The district was bifurcated into two districts viz; East Garo Hills and West Garo Hills districts in October 1979. The District is administered with two sub- Division i.e. Dadenggre Civil Sub-Division & Tikrikilla Civil Su-Division. The District comprises of 7 (Seven) Community and Rural Development (C&RD) Blocks. They are: Rongram C & R. D. Block,Dadenggre C & R. D. Block, Dalu C & R. D. Block, Selsella C & R. D. Block,Tikrikilla C & R. D. Block, Gambegre C & R. D. Block, Demdemma C & R. D. Block. The population of the District is 4, 70,796 as per the Census 2011 which includes 2,37,024 males and 2,33,772 females. The density of population is 175 persons/sq.km. The average literacy % of this district is 91% (As per 2011 census). The Tura range form watersheds in the West Garo Hills district, from which the rivers flows towards Bangladesh plains in the south and the Brahmaputra valley in the north and the west. The important rivers of the north group are the Kalu, Ringgi and the Didak. The important rivers of the southern group are the Bhogai, Dareng etc. The Tura range is also the source of the Simsang (Someswari), one of the major rivers of Meghalaya, whose valley is of the most important feature in the South Garo Hills. The longest river in Garo Hills is Jinjiram River. 5 District Survey Report has been prepared as per the guidelines mentioned in the “Appendix-X” of the notification No. S.O. 361(E) Dated New Delhi the 25th July, 2018 of Ministry of Environment, Forest& Climate Change. The main objective of the preparation of District Survey Report (As per the sustainable Sand Mining Guideline) is to ensure the identification of areas of aggradations or deposition where mining can be allowed; and identification of areas of erosion and proximity to infrastructural structures and installation where mining should be prohibited and calculation of annual rate of replenishment and allowing time for replenishment after mining in that area. The District Environment Impact Assessment Authority (DEIAA) and District Environment Assessment Committee (DEAC) will utilize the report in favour of the environmental clearance to concern activities in the District. Also this report will act as a reference for the Project Proponents willing to apply for lease of areas rich in sand. 6 MAP OF WEST GARO HILLS: 7 2. OVERVIEW OF MINING ACTIVIITIES Sand mining and other extraction activities in West Garo Hills District were mostly done from the rivers and streams available in the District. There are no sand mine or quarry available in the West Garo Hills District except the rivers and streams. The unscientific and indiscriminate mining, absence of post-mining treatment and management of mined areas are making the fragile ecosystems more vulnerable to environmental degradation hence leading to large scale land cover/land use changes. In Garo Hills mining causes massive damage to the landscapes and biological communities as a result, soil erosion, scarcity of water, pollution of air, water and soil reduced soil fertility and loss of biodiversity are some of the serious problems of the area. Most of the economic mineral resources of Garo Hills are associated with the Eocene Tertiary, Sedimentary formation. These minerals are Lithomargic clay, Fireclay, Phosphorite, Gypsum, Quartz and Glass sand. Lithomargic Clay and Fireclay: These clays are associated with the coal deposits of the West Daranggre coalfields. The estimated reserve of the lithomargic clay and fireclay is of the order of 80 million tones, out of which fireclay reserve is 70 million tones.

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