Meghalaya groups resent exemption of uranium mining from public consultations

Several organisations in Meghalaya have expressed concern over a recent office memorandum issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, exempting uranium mining from mandatory public consultations.

The State has one of the country’s largest uranium reserves in the Domiasiat, Wahkaji, and their adjoining areas in the West Khasi Hills district. Locals have resisted attempts to explore and extract the radioactive substance, citing health and environmental reasons.

The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), which led an anti-uranium movement for decades, reaffirmed its opposition to any move to start mining in Meghalaya. He said the memo excluding atomic, critical, and strategic minerals from public hearings under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act was disconcerting.

“The exemption of public consultations is an assault on the rights of the indigenous people. We will oppose fresh attempts to explore uranium in Meghalaya,” KSU president Lambokstar Marngar said on Friday (September 19, 2025).

The Hynniewtrep Youth Council, also representing the Khasi community, said the office memorandum underlined the Centre’s bid to extract uranium at any cost after failing for decades to convince the locals to give up their land.

“This is a new strategy to snatch the people’s right to their land and resources, and to deny their right to live without being exposed to the dangers associated with uranium mining. Our people are aware of how people in Jharkhand’s Jaduguda have been suffering owing to radioactivity caused by uranium mining there,” a spokesperson of the youth body said.

The National People’s Youth Front, the youth wing of the National People’s Party, which rules Meghalaya in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and some regional entities, also criticised the content of the office memorandum.

It asked the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council to invoke provisions of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India to safeguard the rights of tribal people living in the State’s uranium belt.