Rat-hole mining is the process of digging out coal by making small narrow holes, about 3–4 ft deep. Workers (mostly children) go into these holes to extract coal. This technique is used in a few hilly areas, especially Meghalaya. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned, in 2014, this technique of extraction on the grounds of it being unscientific and unsafe for workers. Originally, this method was used to extract coal only for household purposes by the local communities; but later, it developed into an illegal mining trade. At one time, rat-hole miners also came to be known as coal thieves.
Rate-hole mining has recently been in news because it was, finally, through this primitive technique that 41 workers could be safely rescued from the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand, India.
Types of Rat-Hole Mining
There are two ways of rat-hole mining:
(i) Side-cutting method In this method, narrow tunnels are dug on the hill slopes and workers go inside to find the coal seam.
(ii) Box-cutting method In this method, a round-shaped or square-shaped pit is dug with a width of 5 square metres and a depth of 400 feet.
Once the miners reach the coal seam, they dig rat-hole sized tunnels to extract coal.
Why the Need of this Method
Coal seam is very thin in Meghalaya (almost less than 2m), and mostly on hills. It cannot be done with open-cast (also known as open-cut or open-pit) mining or any other methods which are economically viable. Removal of rocks or open mining on hills may be risky due to the possibility of the collapse of rocks. In places that cannot be accessed to extract coal using normal methods, this method is widely used.
This method provides employment opportunities to a large number of community-people in the surrounding areas of coal belts. That is the reason that in spite of the NGT ban, rat-hole mining still continues unabated in many parts of India.
Hazards of this Method
- One of the main concerns is safety. Rat-hole mining is literally like a small hole for people to enter almost by crawling to extract coal. This is one of the most inhuman and unsafe environments to work in.
- There are no safety precautions and compensations as it is an informal method of extraction. There is no responsible entity to take care of the workers or their safety.
- There are environmental hazards as well. These unsupervised activities can lead to deforestation, acidification of rivers, soil erosion, and water pollution.
- Due to the extremely small holes and spaces to extract coal, most of the mining is generally done by children.
- Uncontrolled and unregulated mining by individual communities often leads to conflicts between people and communities doing the mining due to lack of any restrictions or borders or delimitations to each of them. It is a common pool resource. Everyone has access to it, so there are huge chances of exploitation and overuse.
- During rainy season, water seeps into these holes making it very difficult to carry out extraction activities. The water has to be pulled out which is very difficult and an additional work.
Vertical Drilling
Vertical drilling is done through a boring machine by digging straight down from the ground. It is done through machines to access oil and mineral reserves directly below a drilling site. Such kind of drilling gives direct access to the resources. On the other hand, rat-hole mining is utilised at places where machine drilling is not possible.
Since rat-hole mining is mostly used in areas with narrow and thin deposits of coal, it can lead to suffocation due to low supply of oxygen on reaching deep.
Conclusion
Considering the hazards of rat-hole mining as unscientific and dangerous, it was banned by the NGT in 2014. Though the Meghalaya government has passed a resolution and challenged it in the Supreme Court, the court banned this practice. Nevertheless, many political parties still support this mining method due to vote-bank politics. Since it is not completely possible to monitor and ban this method, proper monitoring and regulations should be ensured by the government to take care of the workers. Importantly, the government should also provide the poor miners with alternate employment opportunities so that they can think of any other better alternatives.
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