"The Story of Lumshnong" by Aarti Srivastava highlights ‘mindless’ limestone mining by cement companies. Lumshnong is a village situated in the Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya, India, 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.” The visuals of cement plants in the foreground, while the vegetations begins to look grey, and locals pointing at the shortcomings of limestone mining paint a sordid and truthful picture of what is happening in Lumshnong.
