9 labourers trapped as water enters ‘Rat Hole’ mine in Assam.

Nine workers were trapped as water entered a “rat hole” mine in Assam today. The 300-foot-deep coal mine is situated in Umrangso, a rural industrial town in Dima Hasao area.
According to accounts, water has reached around 100 feet of the illegal quarry. Police and rescue personnel are on the scene, using motor pumps to pump out the water.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma issued a list of the workers trapped in the mine, including Ganga Bahadur Shreth (38), Hussain Ali (30), Jakir Hussain (38), Sarpa Barman (46), Mustafa Seikh (44), Khusi Mohan Rai (57), Sanjit Sarkar (35), Lijan Magar (26), and Sarat Goyary (37).

Teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have left for a location near the Meghalaya border. Earlier, the Chief Minister stated that the state has asked the Army’s support in the continuing rescue mission.

“Rat hole” mining is a risky practice in which workers physically dig tight tunnels. These tunnels go to deep pits where coal is extracted. They also impact the environment because acidic water and heavy metals released from mines are hazardous to agricultural and drinking water sources.

In 2018, water from a neighboring river flooded an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills region, trapping 15 miners. The National Disaster Response Force had only seen two dead, according to the commander at the time, SK Sastri. In 2019, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) fined Meghalaya Rs 100 crore for failing to control unlawful coal mining in the state. The NGT ruled that the majority of the state’s 24,000 mines were unlawful.