RAT HOLE MINING

Subject: Environment

Context: Rat-hole coal mining had sucked the life out of Moolamylliang(village) less than a decade ago. The village in the East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya has now risen like the proverbial phoenix to become a clean, green dot in a vast black blot.

Concept:

• The Jaintia Coal Miners and Dealers’ Association claims there are some 60,000 coal mines across 360 villages in East Jaintia Hills district. Moolamylliang used to be one such village until the National Green Tribunal banned rat-hole mining in April 2014.
• Though the NGT ban did not stop illegal mining in the district, it helped Moolamylliang reform — in part because unregulated mining had contaminated its farmlands and turned the streams acidic, and also because the village dorbar, or traditional governing body, had a change of guard.

Rat Hole Mining

• Rat hole mining involves digging of very small tunnels, usually only 3-4 feet high, which workers (often children) enter and extract coal.
• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned it in 2014, on grounds of it being unscientific and unsafe for workers. The state (Meghalayan) government has challenged the NGT ban in the Supreme Court.
• According to available government data, Meghalaya has a total coal reserve of 640 million tonnes, most of which is mined unscientifically by individuals and communities.
• Since the coal seam is extremely thin in Meghalaya, no other method would be economically viable.

Impacts

• The water sources of many rivers, especially in Jaintia Hills district, have turned acidic.
• The water also has high concentration of sulphates, iron and toxic heavy metals, low dissolved oxygen (DO) and high BOD, showing its degraded quality.
• The roadside dumping of coal is a major source of air, water and soil pollution.
• Off road movement of trucks and other vehicles in the area for coal transportation also adds to the ecological and environmental damage of the area.
• The practice has been declared as unsafe for workers by the NGT.
• The mines branch into networks of horizontal channels, which are at constant risk of caving in or flooding.