Residents of Lon Ton Village, Indawgyi Region of Mohnyin District are worried that the village cemetery will be damaged due to gold mining nearby.
Villagers are concerned about the damage to the burial site due to the construction of a gold mining road near the Lon Ton Village Cemetery in the Ma Mon Kai Village section.
“The road is about 200 feet long. They dug up the cemetery and built a road in the cemetery. Locals are quite worried about the destruction of the cemetery where funerals have been held for 40 years,” a local told the Myitkyina News Journal.
Above the cemetery is farmland, which has been turned into large mud pods due to gold mining.
Currently, gold mining processes are carried out near the villages of Lon Ton, Ma Mon Kai and Mai Nong in Indawgyi using heavy machinery around the clock. In addition, galvanized roof panels are erected as fences around the forest area next to the main road, where gold mining has recently intensified.
“Eleven-foot-high roof panels were erected as a fence on the side of the main road. Its length may be about half a mile,” said a local.
As it is covered with galvanized roof panels, the gold mining is no longer visible. But another villager said he noticed that the creek’s drainage system has deteriorated badly.
Diesel, motor oil and mercury used in gold mining make the stream dirty and muddy, making it inconvenient to use the water from the stream, locals added.
