“The Story of Lumshnong”, a documentary highlighting the rampant and mindless limestone mining by cement companies in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills district, has made it big globally.
The documentary – “The Story of Lumshnong”, directed by Aarti Srivastava, has been selected for three film festivals: Yale Environment 360 Video Contest, Eugene Environmental Film Festival and Green Montenegro International Film Fest.
Lumshnong is a village situated in the Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya, which is rich in reserves of limestone.
These rich reserves of limestone have attracted cement companies to set up their plants in the village, thus creating a hazardous environment for the local population.
The documentary talks about “unthinkable stupidity of the cement companies”. There are as many as eight cement plants in a radius of just five kilometres in Lumshnong village.
Limestone mining, as claimed in the documentary, has turned the Lumshnong village into a “dusty, waterless and barren” piece of land.
“Studies revealed that loss of forest cover, pollution of water, soil and air, depletion of natural flora and fauna, reduction in biodiversity, erosion of soil, and degradation of agriculture land are some are some of the hazards of limestone mining,” the makers of the documentary stated.
They added: “The hazards will not just be limited to the areas around the mines and cement factories but will spill to other regions if environmental checks are not put in place. It will also affect the lives of the people who live around the area.”
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The visuals in the documentary shows how due to limestone mining vegetations “begin to look grey, and locals pointing at the shortcomings of limestone mining paint a sordid and truthful picture of what is happening in Lumshnong.”
Details of the three film festivals where “The story of Lumshnong” was selected.
Yale environment 360 video contest:
The eighth annual Yale Environment 360 Video Contest is now accepting entries. The contest honors the year’s best environmental videos, with the aim of recognizing work that has not previously been widely seen. Submissions must focus on an environmental issue or theme. The contest judges will be Yale Environment 360 editor Roger Cohn, Pulitzer Prize winner and e360 contributor Elizabeth Kolbert, and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Thomas Lennon.
Eugene Environmental Film Festival:
Eugene environmental film festival believes in creating space to address critical issues facing our planet. We support the work being done at local and global levels and share a deep connection and responsibility to protect the environment and work in solidarity with others in the struggle toward environmental justice.