Page 16 - RMAI Bulletin July - September 2021

RMAI BULLETIN JULY TO SEPTEMBER 2021

Y National Aluminium Company to make their living and when people are in need, they
Y Bharat Aluminium Company can do anything. This lets the powerful people to use
them as their workers and extract colas for economic
Y Rajasthan State Mines and Minerals
benefit. Such irresponsible behaviour and greed can
Y Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation easily take someone's life. The day was not too far:

Case Study - Rathole Mining: On 13th December 2018, 15 workers trapped in a 350
feet deep coal mine in the East Jaintia Hills district of
Coal reserves are especially found in the Eastern states
of India - Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal Meghalaya after it was flooded by the Lytein River.
Rescue operations were carried on by National
etc. and predominantly on the North Eastern states of
Disaster Response Force and the Indian Navy. It was
Assam and Meghalaya. Here, mining is not much
commercialised due to the difficult terrain in the North one of the several mishaps that has taken place over
Eastern states. Also, coal found in these reserves the years, leading to the death of workers. NGT
contain lots of Sulphur which lowers its energy slapped anRs 100 Crore fine on the Government of
efficiency. Meghalaya for failing to curb the illegal mining.
Unfortunately, people are still unhappy with the ban
imposed by NGT and the government is trying hard to
A rat-hole mine is a type which involves digging of
get them to terms.
mines that are very small in nature similar to ones dug
like rats. Hence, the name was given during the
colonial times, Sistema del rato. They are usually, 3 to
4 feet deep, in which workers (mostly children) enter
and extract coal. It is done mainly by the community
or some families. Mainly done in the Indian state of
Meghalaya. It is broadly of two types - side cutting and
box cutting.

As we known the coal extracted are of bad quality, but
lack of employment, loss of livelihood, backwardness
in the region and under education makes the people
to see these mines as a treasure and by extracting
these coal they can earn their daily bread. Rich people
employ such poverty ridden people for the extraction,
mostly children are employed because of their thin Figure 6 - Source: Down to Earth
body and shape. This practice of mining has become
very popular in Meghalaya. Since, it is an illegal Impacts of rat hole mining:
practice, it is done behind closed doors and companies Y The river waters, especially in the Jaintia region
fear investing in this sector. has turned acidic
Y Off road movement of trucks damages the
In the year 2014, National Green Tribunal (NGT) ecological and environmental balance
banned the rat hole mining since it is unsafe and
Y The practice has already been declared unsafe for
unscientific for workers. Also, the decision of NGT was the workers
upheld by Supreme Court after Meghalaya's
government challenged it. Y The branch of mines can lead to caving in or
flooding
The government does not have any policy to regulate Y Roadside dumping of coal is a major source of
such illegal and hazardous mining method in place. water, air and soil pollution
Mining policy drafted in 2012 does not address the
Y Water quality degrades and shows sign of low
issue of rat hole mining. The coal seam is not too thick dissolved oxygen
in the Meghalaya to make other methods economically
viable. People there also overlook these challenges just Rat - Hole Mining has to be discontinued.

14