Sunday, 13 Oct, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
An accident at an illegal coal mining in the north-eastern state of Meghalaya killed one person and left another battling for his life. According to the police reports, the incident happened in the shallang area of West Khasi Hills district on Thursday night.
An accident at an illegal coal mining in the north-eastern state of Meghalaya killed one person and left another battling for his life. According to the police reports, the incident happened in the shallang area of West Khasi Hills district on Thursday night. The two persons, who were trapped in the coal mining, were identified as Lependro Sangma, 34 and Hendid Momin, 33 both from Uguri village. The one who died was Lependro Sangma. The anti-coal mining activist from Meghalaya, Agnes Kharshiing said that this incident has once again exposed the state government’s claim of no illegal rathole coal mining in Meghalaya. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had banned the hazardous rathole coal mining in April 2014. Apart from this, the Supreme Court also imposed restrictions, allowing only the coal extracted till the ban came into effect to be transported. In March, the Meghalaya High Court had directed the Conrad Sangma government to set up a committee without any political interference to implement the ban on rathole coal mining in the state.
In Meghalaya, rat-hole mining has been the predominant mining method since the 1980s. Miners are sent down deep vertical shafts with narrow horizontal tunnels of 3 to 4 feet in diameter to collect coal for 100 to 150 metres, and in some cases even beyond. This process mostly involves children because of their small body frame. Since the coal seams are very thin in Meghalaya, rat-hole mining is considered to be an economically viable method of coal extraction rather than removal of rocks from hilly terrains and putting up pillars inside the mine to prevent collapse like open cast mining.
The water sources of many rivers, especially in Jaintia Hills district, have turned acidic due to the rathole coal mining. The water also has high concentration of sulphate, iron and toxic heavy metals, low dissolved oxygen (DO) and high BOD, showing its degraded quality. According to the experts, the major reason for rathole mining in Meghalaya can be attributed to the difficulty in obtaining the legal mining license.
A large number of workers have lost their life due to mining in India. The chart below shows the number of deaths of workers due to mining in last five years.
*Up to July 2022
Source: Environmental Information System, Centre for mining environment
A large number of workers have lost their lives due to mining in last five years. The year 2018 saw the highest number of deaths as around 17 workers had died in a illegal rathole mine in Meghalaya. Daily wages, which could be as high as Rs 2,000-3,000, draws the poor from the Northeast, particularly Assam, to the Meghalaya mines. A section of the mines is allegedly owned by politicians and their family members. In spite of ban by the NGT and Supreme Court, Meghalaya’s annual coal production of nearly 6 million tonnes is mostly said to have come through rat-hole mining. Also, most of the deaths due to rathole mining in Meghalaya are not even reported. This has compromised the health and lives of large number of people associated with rathole mining in the state.
