GUWAHATI
The police and local authorities in Assam’s Dima Hasao district have initiated a drive to seal all the rat holes and seize all mining equipment at the mine sites.
The drive is in connection with the flooding of a 90-metre-deep rat-hole coal mine on January 6, trapping nine miners. The bodies of four miners were retrieved by January 10 but five others remain untraced.
A few days ago, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that about 220 rat-hole mines had been detected in the district’s Umrangso area bordering Meghalaya. Many of these were in operation despite bans by the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court almost a decade ago.
“We have begun the process of sealing all rat-hole mines on the directions of the Director General of Police. The whole process will take time as the logistics requirement is huge,” Dima Hasao’s Superintendent of Police Mayank Kumar said.
“We have begun by restricting access to such mines, and dismantling and seizing the equipment at their sites,” he said, adding that 11 persons had been arrested in connection with the January 6 mishap.
Officials said the hopes of rescuing the five miners still trapped in the flooded mine are dim. They said the ill-fated mine, believed to be interlinked underground with three abandoned mines nearby, still has more the 10 crore litres of water.
Personnel of multiple agencies have been pumping water out from these mines continuously since January 7. Earlier, the Chief Minister had said it might take up to 60 days to suck the water out of the mines.
13 mines sealed
Officials in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district sealed 13 illegal rat-hole mines in the Margherita area adjoining Arunachal Pradesh. The operation was carried out jointly with Coal India Limited.
A magistrate in the district said the exercise to seal the 13 mines identified so far was begun on Saturday (January 18, 2025). Four workers were arrested and an excavator and other equipment seized. The magistrate also said the illegal miners were operating from an abandoned Coal India office after managing the electricity connection.
