It is indeed heartwarming news that Chungtia Senso Mungdang as an umbrella organization has initiated a river cleanup exercise along a 10-kilometer stretch of the Milak River. This is a major river in Nagaland and the biggest river in Mokokchung district.
Apart from its environmental importance and natural values, Milak River is also strongly associated with many Ao Naga legends, lore and traditions. In fact, our forefathers revered the river and it was considered a taboo to desecrate it.
It is amusing how our ‘primitive’ ancestors realized the importance of preserving the riverine ecosystem in its undisturbed form but here we are today, the ‘advanced’ descendants desecrating it in all ways imaginable; nay, unimaginable.
Plastic waste management entails certain scientific interventions and should be guided by some level of informed decision while undertaking cleanliness drives. For instance, burning plastic wastes after collecting them is unhealthy and not environmentally friendly. Proper understanding of the process is necessary to achieve the desired objective when it comes to beating plastic pollution.
Meanwhile, the fact that Chungtia Senso Mungdang understood the gravity of the situation and initiated the cleanliness drive along Milak River has the potential to be regarded as the turning point in Mokokchung’s campaign against plastic pollution.
It will definitely send a message to the authorities and urban dwellers in Mokokchung. This is perhaps the first time that a Senso Mungdang of any village has initiated a river cleanup exercise.
It is expected that the river cleanup exercise conducted on March 18 would not be a one off event but the beginning of a journey into perpetuity in the campaign against plastic pollution and preservation of the riverine ecosystem.
Interestingly, Milak River swirls down the hills traversing across more than a dozen villages and five ranges. Will it be possible to organize these villages into a united forum with the objective to protect and preserve the river and restore it to its primeval form?
It is believed that almost all the villages are on their own ways doing what they can to protect the river but the sheer expanse of the area that the river passes through demands a more concerted effort on the part of the villages. It will only take a few people to undertake the preliminary initiatives to organize the villages into a cohesive whole. It is strongly believed that not one single village would denounce participation in such a novel venture.
A Milak River Corridor Conservation effort can be initiated as a joint venture of all the villages through which the river flows through. This will not only achieve the desired goal of preserving the river and restoring it to its natural state but also become an exemplary project that will be replicated around the state, a pioneering effort in the land of pioneers.