Central Idea

The rescue operation in Uttarakhand using rat-hole mining, a method banned for its hazardous nature and environmental impact, brings to light the complexities and challenges of mining practices in India.

What is Rat-Hole Mining?

Description: A primitive and hazardous method of mining involving digging small tunnels, just large enough for a person to crawl through, to extract coal.
Types:
- Side-Cutting: Following a visible coal seam on hill slopes.
- Box-Cutting: Involves digging a pit and then creating horizontal tunnels.
Irony: Thecued workers from Assam, a region that lost lives to rat-hole mining in Meghalaya, were ironically saved using the same method.

Location: Prevalent in Meghalaya, a Sixth Schedule State where central mining laws don’t apply.
Risks: Asphyxiation, mine collapse, flooding, and severe environmental impacts.
NGT Ban (2014): Due to safety hazards and environmental degradation, including river pollution.
Continued Illegal Mining: Despite the ban, illegal mining and transportation persist, with significant loss of lives (e.g., 17 miners drowned in 2018 in East Jaintia Hills).

Activism: Environmental and human rights groups highlighted the dangers for two decades.
Child Labor: Reports estimated around 70,000 children, mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal, were employed in these mines.
Official Acknowledgment: Under pressure, the State admitted to child labor in 2013, leading to the NGT ban in 2014.

Economic Viability: Thin coal seams in Meghalaya make rat-hole mining more economically feasible than open-cast mining.
Coal Reserves: Meghalaya has significant coal reserves dating back to the Eocene age.
Government Action: Meghalaya announced the approval of mining leases for ‘scientific’ mining in 2023.
Concerns: Skepticism remains among anti-mining activists about the implementation of sustainable and legal mining practices.

While the approval of ‘scientific’ mining offers a legal and potentially safer avenue, it remains to be seen how effectively it will replace the dangerous and unregulated rat-hole mining, especially in regions with unique geological and socio-political contexts like Meghalaya.