July 15, 2020-Version 13

A Gain Worth The Loss? 2-8 Why does no one care about recurring mine accidents in India's 'resource frontier'- the north-east? Arunima Sen Gupta by an Act of the Parliament of India) had banned all lbert Hubbard rightly said: “A man is not the unchecked or illegal mining in 2014, these paid for having a head and hands, but for shocking incidents continued to be quite common. Eusing them”. But the truth is that there are Even Nagaland has banned illegal mining as per the people dying as a result of using their hand and Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, keeping in mind heads! This is exactly what is happening in the the coal mining accidents in Meghalaya. Khliehriat, north-eastern states of India and the worse part is which is Meghalaya's coal trade hub, is the that we have no time to understand or address this headquarters of East Jaintia Hills district (EJH), issue. On 13 December 2018, in a coal mine in which also has the most mineral resources among the Ksan (a district in Meghalaya), 15 mine workers eight mining districts of the northeastern State. were trapped, out of whom, 5 somehow managed According to Balios Swer, president of the to escape. You will be surprised to know that the Jaintia Coal Miners and Dealers Association, there release and rescue missions launched by the are about 60,000 mines spread across 360 villages in Indian navy, Indian army, the National Disaster the EJH. Says environment activist Brian Kharpran Response Force (NDRF) as well as other agencies Daly of the Meghalaya Adventurers' Association continued till 2nd March 2019. In yet another (MAA): “There are thousands of huge holes, 90-100 incident, 4 mine workers died in an illegal mine in m deep, all over the place. They just leave them like Nagaland on March 3, 2019. The tragic incident that after extracting all the coal. Many children and occurred in the mine located in an isolated village livestock have fallen in these mines and died. But called Yonglok (located in Longleng district) at there are no complaints lodged because the coal the border of Nagaland and Assam. They died as a barons are too powerful and everyone is scared.”Says result of inhaling toxic gases. The irony is that Daly: “The whole valley has become acidic, like a even though the National Green Tribunal (formed desert. Mining has robbed the poor villagers of their 2 Efforts to rescue 15 miners trapped for two weeks inside a flooded coal mine in Meghalaya did not yield desired results farmlands. There are no trees around, hardly any Northeast India. It is an insight into the heartland of a birds, only shrubs that you associate mostly with 'militarised carbon landscape', into lives built around barren land, as the topsoil has disappeared. Worse, tea, oil, coal and coated with vernacular ideas of all the water sources in Jaintia Hills are polluted. power, status, obligation. In recent times, news about The toxic cocktail unleashed by coal and limestone a few government decisions to expand resource mining and the cement plants has turned the rivers extraction in parts of Northeast India has led to either orange-yellow or a sickly blue.” The NGT's significant opposition across a wide spectrum, order banning rat-hole mining came after the All alleging potential irreparable ecological damage to Dimasa Students' Union in neighbouring Assam sensitive biodiversity zones. These include the filed a petition stating that the non-treatment of reported clearance given for open-cast coal mining toxic discharge from the coal mines of Meghalaya by the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) inside the was polluting streams and rivers downstream in Saleki Proposed Reserve Forest (part of Dehing Assam. Their petition was based on a study by O.P. Patkai elephant reserve), the Union Ministry for Singh, a faculty member at the North-Eastern Hill Environment, Forest and Climate Change University in Shillong, Meghalaya's capital. (MoEFCC) giving clearance for the extension of Local people believe that mining is a threat drilling and testing of hydrocarbons at seven to their natural environment, despite the fact that locations by OIL under the Dibru-Saikhowa National such a resource can boost up their economy, along Park area (that includes the Maguri-Motapong with the state's economy. They say mining should wetland area considered crucial for migratory birds) be done in a proper scientific and sustainable way, and the go-ahead given (and subsequently put on without harming the environment in any way. They hold) for the Etalin mega hydroelectric project at also raise a host of questions: Why was there no Dibang valley, Arunachal Pradesh. proper research or fact-checking before the mining Why do these mishaps occur? operation? What is the indifference for? Why has The first and foremost reason is that North East India the government been silent though people have lost is the forgotten part of the country for many. Starting their lives? Will the scenario remain the same if from the government, to national media and Indian these incidents took place in other parts of India? citizens in general, they do not have any idea or any The questions notwithstanding, it is how the awareness for that matter, about what is happening everyday life unfolds in the 'resource frontiers' of there. Lack of infrastructure, communication and 3 growth has been the unsolved concerns faced by the seven sister-states always. The government, irrespective of the political party in power, doesn't give much attention and importance to the region, while other parts of India are moving scurrying towards expansion. The inequity is clear by the fact that Manipur state budget is lower than the yearly financial plan of one single department of the Andhra Pradesh administration. Then, the People's Republic of China stating an illegitimate imposition on the north-east province, and claiming it to be a part of its own, is also not letting it grow. These are the major reasons which are to a large extent responsible for such tragic incidents. The national media is also quite ignorant in terms of writing or broadcasting the news from North-East India. Coal mining operates as shadow economy Despite the presence of coal reserves, commercial mining is not practiced in the North- Eastern regions because of terrain's unsuitability as well as nature of coal deposits. Open mining Rescue operation at a site of mishap in Meghalaya cannot be practiced due to the added difficulties. Meghalaya operates as a 'shadow' economy, wherein Further, the coal found in North-East contains lots district councils, traders' associations, armed of sulfur. This overall reduces the energy extortionists and insurgents, various tiers of efficiency and therefore this type of coal is government, border security forces (in the case of categorized as bad quality of coal. Coal-mining exports to Bangladesh), and even weigh bridge and has been taking place in Meghalaya since the toll gate operators have long operated with legal 1840s, but production accelerated from the impunity — that is, until the 2014 NGT ban.” It 1980s. The Meghalaya government's latest blames loopholes in the Sixth Schedule and the land estimates put the State's coal reserves at 576.48 tenure system. Miners and local councils have million tonnes, though only 133.13 million allegedly been using exemptions given to tribal tonnes are classified as 'proved'. The coal boom in people (under the Sixth Schedule) to justify rampant Meghalaya saw annual production rise from mining. The government has control over only 5% of 39,000 tonnes in 1979 to 5 million tonnes in 2014. Meghalaya's land, with the rest being either Unlike open-cast mining in central India, rat-hole community or privately owned. mining involves side-cutting — tunnelling in Rat-hole mining from a hill slope — or digging pits into the hills On December 2018, the collapse of coal mine in until miners hit a seam of coal. The tunnels are Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills, trapping at least 15 then made from the bottom of the pit, where the workers who were still missing and are feared dead, extracted coal is collected and hauled up by has thrown the spotlight on the “rat-hole mining.” cranes. In the shallower 'traditional' mines, Although banned, it remains the only procedure of labourers carried coal in conical bamboo baskets coal mining in Meghalaya. A rat-hole mine involves using makeshift wooden stairs. A Citizen's Report digging of very small tunnels, usually only 3-4 feet (prepared by civil society groups in Meghalaya deep, in which workers, more often children, enter and submitted to the Supreme Court a month after and extract coal. Rat-hole mining is broadly of two activists Agnes Kharshiing and Amita Sangma types – side-cutting and box-cutting. In backward survived an attack by the 'coal mafia' in regions, where there is loss of livelihood, lack of November) observes that the State's mineral employment opportunities and under-education, wealth has been a curse. It says: “Coal mining in people see rat-hole mines as an opportunity to earn 4 daily bread. People with power employ poverty- pumped out. Few private players and some people ridden people to go into the rat-hole mines and dug who do invest in such mining are taking the help of out coal. A major portion of these employees are Constitution to right their wrongs. They say, children, who are preferred because of their thin “Constitution's 6th Schedule intends to protect the body shape and ease to access depths. communities' ownership over its land and autonomy This practice has become very popular in and consent over its nature of use.” The ongoing coal Meghalaya.

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