Context

• The efforts to reach the 15 miners trapped in an illegal coal mine in the East Jaintia hills of Meghalaya since December 13 continue.

• However, these efforts began belatedly and have faced many problems.

• Further, illegal rat-hole mining in Meghalaya persists despite ruinous effects on the environment.

Rescue efforts were doomed from the beginning

• First, the Meghalaya government has no idea what happens inside these rat-hole mines, which are barely 2 ft wide, since mining is a private activity.

• Despite the National Green Tribunal ban of April 2014, mining continues in the State.

• Second, it was unfortunate that the district administration assumed the miners to be dead on the very day of the tragedy.

• This assumption was evident in the letter written to the National Disaster Response Force.

• It was only after a Delhi-based lawyer and his team of human rights lawyers presented their suggestions to the court that the Meghalaya government got different actors to the accident site.

Issue: Why things were delayed?

• The distance of the mine was a major hindrance.

• The trapped miners were being racially profiled in the minds of the people and the state.

• Of the 15 miners, only three were locals from the nearby village of Lumthari.

• The rest were Muslims from Garo Hills, Meghalaya, and Bodoland, Assam.

• Their socio-economic profile also worked against them.

• They were the poorest of the poor who took a huge risk to enter a mine and dig for coal without any safety gear.

Other challenges faced: No single person or agency to coordinate the rescue mission

• When a mine is flooded, the immediate response, apart from pumping out the water, is to stop further flow of water into it.

• This requires a hydrologist to scientifically map out the area from where water entered the mine.

• Sudhir Kumar, a hydrologist from the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, arrived only two weeks after the disaster.

• So did the divers from the Indian Navy and the 100 HP water pumps from Kirloskar Brothers.

• The remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) from Planys in Chennai came three weeks later and so did the geologists from Hyderabad.

• All these delays happened because there was no one person or agency to coordinate the rescue mission.

Questions arise with respect to rat-hole mining of coal

• Why does the state allow this archaic mining system, which has complete disregard for human life and safety?

• Why is Meghalaya exempted from national mining laws?

Ill-effects of Rat-hole mining

• Rat-hole mining, which started with gusto in the 1980s, has poisoned three rivers in the Jaintia hills: the Myntdu, Lunar and Lukha.

• Scientists from the North-Eastern Hill University have found that these rivers have very high acidic levels.

• Reports from other agencies suggest that pH of the water and sulphate and iron concentrations indicate significant deterioration of the rivers.

• Acid mine drainage from abandoned mines was a major cause for water pollution in the areas investigated, the reports added.

Arguments of coal mine owners

• According to the coal mine owners, rat-hole mining should continue because no other form of mining is viable.

• They argue that the NGT ban should be lifted since they claim that coal mining provides livelihoods for many.

Tribes of Meghalaya are divided on the issue of rat-hole mining

• Those who care for the environment and for a future for their children and grandchildren have been clamouring for an end to the practice of rat-hole mining and reckless limestone mining.

• On the other hand, the mining elite have mobilised forces to demonise environmental activists.

• To add to these woes, cement companies also release their effluents into the rivers.

• So now a deadly cocktail of pollutants is being released into the environment.

• The scale of the problem is clear in this one fact: there are 3,923 coal mines in one district with a geographical area of 2126 sq. km.

Meghalaya is a Sixth Schedule State

• The other troubling factor is that coal mine owners are insisting that since Meghalaya is a State under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, national mining laws should be exempted here.

• The Sixth Schedule was enacted to protect the community rights of tribals from any form of exploitation of their land and resources.

• It cannot be used as an instrument to protect an activity that is a private enterprise and inhuman. It also violates Article 21 of the Constitution.

• Therefore, it seems that the Sixth Schedule is unable to protect the forests and rivers that are common property resources.

• Acid mine drainage has rendered even agricultural land non-productive. Mine owners do not care about environmental degradation.

Abandoning their responsibility

• There is complete disregard for corporate social responsibility by coal mine owners because the mines are privately owned by the tribals.

• They have left thousands of abandoned mines as human graves.

• The State also does not insist that they reclaim and afforest those mines.

•  In 40 years of mining and profiteering, the mine owners have till date not constructed a single hospital or even a school.

Conclusion

• The Central government and the Supreme Court should not allow this to carry on in one part of the country when strict laws are applied elsewhere.