The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday asked the Assam government to explain what steps it has taken to stop illegal rat-hole mining in the state, reported Live Law.

The court issued notices to the chief secretary and officials from the Mines and Minerals Department, Environment and Forest Department, Home and Political Department, Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Directorate of Geology and Mining and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council. They have been asked to respond by February 7.

Rat-hole mining is an unscientific practice that involves digging narrow tunnels to extract coal where miners need to crawl on hands and feet or lay flat to navigate. The practice has been banned for over a decade in Assam’s neighbouring state of Meghalaya.

The court’s direction came as part of a suo motu public interest litigation prompted by the recent deaths of miners in Dima Hasao district. The court also expressed concern about illegal rat-hole mining in Karbi Anglong district, noting that the practice “is either going unnoticed or despite having knowledge of the same, the authorities are not taking any action to stop or close those rathole mines”.

On January 6, nine workers were trapped in a 300-foot-deep coal mine in Umrangso town after sudden flooding. More than two weeks later, only four bodies have been recovered.

After the incident, the Assam government shut down more than 250 illegal rat-hole mines in Tinsukia and Dima Hasao districts.

Panel finds illegal mining continues in Meghalaya

A Meghalaya High Court-appointed panel confirmed on Tuesday that illegal coal mining persists in the state’s South Garo Hills district despite a 2014 ban, The Shillong Times reported.

“Coal is coming from somewhere, and mining is evidently taking place,” said retired Justice BP Katakey.

In 2022, the committee provided statistical evidence for the first time that illegal rat-hole coal mining is thriving in the northeastern hill state.

Back then the committee had found that “13 lakh MT [metric tonnes] of coal was illegally mined, transported and discovered which the state sought to pass off as coal mined prior to the imposition of the ban”.

In 2014, the National Green Tribunal banned rat-hole mining of coal in Meghalaya but allowed for transportation of already-mined coal till 2017. The Supreme Court has since given more concessions to the state’s coal miners, allowing for periodic extensions of the transportation deadline, which critics say enables fresh illegal mining under the guise of transporting old coal.

The Meghalaya High Court set up the Katakey committee in April 2022 to enforce the coal mining ban in the state.

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