Formed in the year 2001, The Mootyrshiah Youth Welfare Organization’s (MYWO) motto has been to “Join the Green Side”. Focused on enhancing the green cover of their village named Mootyrshiah and its surrounding area, this group of youth has helped achieve a remarkable increase in green cover in their village and surrounding areas over the last fifteen years.
The group’s passion and commitment to their goal has led to the formation of the Lumtiniang Park. The group regularly conducts cleaning drives and awareness campaigns in the village to mobilize people around cleaning and greening efforts. The group also often conducts workshops and cleanliness drives in the local schools, working to make the local children aware of environmental issues.
An interesting initiative taken up by this youth organization was doing away with house boundary walls made of cement and replace it with plant-based fencing, such as using the forget - me- not creepers. Their efforts have started paying off and this is obvious when one takes a quick walk around the village to see some of the houses that have implemented this visually appealing idea. The group believes that these kinds of initiatives may be small but can have great impact in due course of time.
On being asked about their motivations for taking up issues related to environment protection, the group members said that the village and its surrounding areas were being degraded by coal mining activities in the past. Owing to this, some local youth decided to come together and form an organization to sensitize other community members on the importance of keeping their community clean and maintaining green cover so that the degradation could be slowed down. As with other nonprofit community organizations, the MYWO depends on funds from private donors or sometimes from governmental departmental schemes such as under the forest department or the sports and youth welfare department. Revenue earned from entry fees for parks or from sporting competitions held by the organization goes to the village welfare fund. Money from this fund allows implementation of further activities such as cleaning drives and nature-themed competitions which is usually held during Christmas.
For their civic innovation and tireless efforts, this youth organization was felicitated by the Institute of Natural Resources Management (INRM) on 9th June 2016 at the Green Volunteers’ Conclave, which was organized as part of the celebration for the World Environment Day 2016, in the state. At present, the youth in this group are focused on developing Lumtiniang Park as an ecotourism site, with further beautification activities. Lumtiniang Park has high potential to become an eco-tourism site since it has multiple nature walk trails leading into the local forest, with some paths along the Lukha River as well.
The organization is also planning further landscaping work around local hill top sites which offer panoramic views of East Jaintia Hills. In a region where several community landscapes are maliced by old coal mines and landfills, Mootyrshiah village stands out as a green oasis testifying to the youth organization’s years of work. These youth are indeed change makers in the environmental sector, spreading a message that is critical for the entire state today. Indeed, Meghalaya is on the right path of transformation through the efforts of youth such as those of Mootyrshiah village.