Shillong, Oct 29: A nonagenarian who has been the face of anti-uranium protest in Meghalaya breathed her last on Wednesday.
It may be mentioned that Spelity Lyngdoh Langrin, a resident of Domiasiat died at the ripe old age of 95 will be better known as the one who refused to sell her land to the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) to mine Uranium in South West Khasi Hills district.
Spelity has been suffering from various age-related diseases, but has not been able to get much of medical attention due to the non-existence of a health centre in the village.
Lovingly called “meiieid†(maternal grandmother) by the anti-uranium activists, she became a household name when she rejected a lucrative offer from the UCIL to sell her land after the Atomic Minerals Directorate had undertaken exploratory drilling for uranium deposits in 1993.
According to her relatives in 2002 when UCIL officials came to meet my her she was offered her Rs. 45 crore to sell off her land for mining of uranium.
“However, my mother-in-law out rightly rejected the lucrative offer due to the frequent deaths of children and strange illness of villagers following the exploratory mining,†Norman Donald Syiem, the Secretary of Domiasiat village and Spelity’s son-in-law recounts.
“Money cannot buy me freedom,†Spelity had said to eventually motivate locals against the “environmental ills†of uranium mining.
The Khasi Students’ Union, which had been opposing the Kylleng-Pyndengsohïong-Mawthabah uranium mining project mourned Spelity’s death.
“The matriarch who withstood the onslaught of UCIL and its agents to forcibly mine uranium in Meghalaya has departed from us. May her soul rest in peace,†the union tweeted.