‘Latuthin festival’ all set to be held in East Jaintia Hills’ Lamu falls

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaFebruary 17, 2020

SHILLONG: The second edition of the Latuthin Festival 2020 is all set to be held in East Jaintia Hills, a coal rich district of the state on February 22.

Organised by the East Jaintia Adventure Cultural and Tourism Society (EJACTS), the festival will be held at the picturesque Lamu Falls at Iapmala village located along the Rymbai-Leshka road.

Addressing media persons here on Monday, EJACTS president and headman of Ladrymbai, Jasper Bareh said the festival is aimed at promoting tourism in the district.

He said the festival is also named after a very rare flower ‘Latuthin’ which is found only in Meghalaya and Sikkim.

According to him, people of the region often compared the beauty of a woman to this flower.

On the other hand, secretary of the society Glorious Bareh said that the festival will feature international reggae artists – Dann Man from Jamaica and Ninjah Dread from Sweden – besides Woodland band from Nagaland.

The state’s own bands like Summersalt, Fourth Element and others will also share the stage during the musical extravanza, he said.

Asked, Glorious said that the festival also aimed to make people realise that coal is not only the source for livelihood.

“We don’t know for how long can coal mining be a source of livelihood for our people but we definitely have no doubt that tourism can be a solution to growing unemployment faced by our youths,” he said.

It may be mentioned here, people of East Jaintia Hills have been hardly hit ever since the National Green Tribunal (NGT) imposed the blanket ban on rat hole coal mining in Meghalaya in the year 2014.

Although the Supreme Court had on July 3, last year lifted the five-year ban but coal mining is yet to be resumed.

However, East Jaintia Hills is also a home for famous caves and unexplored tourist spots and people now are looking at tourism as an alternative to coal mining.

Meanwhile the highlights of the festival also include play zone for children, traditional food stalls and others.

The inaugural function will also be attended by Congress Shillong MP Vincent Pala, Social Welfare Minister Kyrmen Shylla and other dignitaries.

According to the organizers, the first edition of the Latuthin festival was held in 2017 in which it also got a positive response from the people including tourists from outside the state.