Meghalaya’s native Khasi communities have a rich experience of grassroots democracy. Linda Chhakchhuak narrates her experience Laitkseh, a village, where the inhabitants were opposed to any commercial scale stone mining operation that they felt would lead to drying up of the water sources.

Paul Andy Kharkhongor takes a stroll along the memory lanes of Nongrim Hills, a locality he grew up in. The memories of several elders, besides his own, revolve mostly around their childhood experiences of collecting water from a popular source of spring water, known as Ka Per Moina. 

Linda Chhakchhuak talks here about one of the extraordinary collective actions to protect the migratory indigenous fishes. Very few perhaps know that there are such locations in Mizoram where the exciting scene of upstream movement of many native egg-bearing fish species can be witnessed by the human eye.

Sanat K. Chakraborty presents a unique case of collective resistance by a local community, U Lum Syiem Lum Mawpat. The community leaders argued that the construction of the market complex along with the infrastructure would lead to the destruction of numerous natural springs and streamlets.

The indigenous Garo tribal community in Meghalaya has found a unique way of protecting its native fish species in the flowing hill streams. They had sound knowledge about the fish breeding season, their migration pattern towards upstream, and the need for their protection.