KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – At least 13 people have been trapped and feared to be killed while illegally mining coal in the north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya.
According to preliminary reports received from government officials, the trapped miners may have been killed in the coal mine in the coal-rich Jantia hills.
The officials said that local residents were extracting coal from an abandoned mine when a wall collapsed leading to flooding, which was preventing local authorities from recovering the bodies.
Coal mining in Meghalaya, which has estimated coal reserves of 640-million tons, has been banned by the National Green Tribunal, but illegal mining is rampant in the region, often with families and children digging holes along the Jantia Hills to extract coal, notoriously known as ‘rat hole mining’ among the local population.
The site of the latest accident, according to officials, had old holes along the hillside where coal had been extracted several years ago. It is believed that a section of the local population had entered the coal face through these holes to extract dry fuel, when a wall collapsed and water from the nearby Lytien river entered trapping the 13 illegal miners.
The district administration has deployed pumps to evacuate flood waters from the interiors of the hills, but official said inhospitable terrain was making relief operations a big challenge.
Illegal mining has been a periodic feature in the north-eastern state and 15 people were similarly trapped in course of ‘rat hole’ mining in the neighboring Garo hills in 2015. The bodies of the trapped miners were never recovered.