From Our Correspondent
TURA: An attempt to extract coal from a used mine shaft in Siju area of South Garo Hills proved disastrous for a group of locals when three of them reportedly lost their lives after inhaling toxic fumes deep inside the coal pit several hundred feet below the surface of the ground. Among the dead was the owner of the mine.
While the incident took place on August 24, news of the tragedy trickled down only this week to neighboring villages. The tragedy occurred at Garogittim village, 4 kms from Siju market where there is no communication link in the remote jungle area that adjoins Balpakram National Park.
Siju is a prime ecological paradise that boasts of a famous bird sanctuary. It is 35 kms from district headquarters Baghmara.
While the district administration has denied having any knowledge of the incident, locals from the area gave vivid details of the tragedy.
Five miners, including the owner identified as Nilbal Ch Marak, reportedly descended over a hundred feet inside the rat hole mine to extract coal but the strong presence of highly toxic sulpher dioxide (SO2) gases was too overpowering. Only two of the miners managed to stagger out gasping for breath but alive. The owner and his two workers perished inside the mine.
The bodies of the deceased had to be abandoned inside the mine due to lack of equipment to safely enter and retrieve them. The Samrakshan Trust NGO, which is working in Siju and Baghmara area for eco-conservation and seeking an end to illegal mining that causes so many lives every year, informed that toxic gas inhalation and mine collapse are the prime causes for death.
“They probably entered a used mine which has a strong circulation of toxic fumes and gases because fresh mines do not contain the poisonous gas,” informed Kamal Medhi of Samrakshan Trust.
According to Samrakshan Trust, it is pertinent for the Meghalaya Government to map all abandoned coal pits to prevent its re-entry and reuse which can lead to human tragedy.
Surprisingly, there is no legal status for coal mining in the state since the government is yet to implement the draft mining policy. In the absence of any legal status, unscientific mining, commonly known as rat hole mining, has mushroomed throughout the length and breadth of Nangalbibra-Siju region where coal is in abundance.
Despite the high risk involved, hundreds of locals and migrant laborers enter the mines everyday in the hope of making it rich from the extraction of coal.
Mining disasters have taken place frequently with the last major catastrophe occurring in 2009 at Rongsa A’we when eight coal miners lost their lives after they unknowingly broke through the wall of an abandoned mine that was filled with several thousand gallons of water drowning them. The mine which gave them their livelihood sadly became their grave as their bodies were never able to be retrieved due to the water level and the presence of toxic gas inside.