‘Improvised traditional rat-hole mining has minimal impact on vegetation and forest cover’
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 14: At a time when the stage is being set for open-cast progressive scientific mining of coal in Meghalaya, experts have acknowledged that the impact on vegetation and forest cover from open-cast mining would be greater than the traditional rat-hole mining practiced in the state for generations until the National Green Tribunal imposed a ban in 2014.
The Centre has given clearance to four applicants to start scientific mining of coal in Meghalaya and the final step left for resumption of mining is the environment clearance as per the Environment Impact Assessment notification of 2006, which is likely to take 4-5 months.
Officials of the Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL) are of the opinion that the impact on vegetation and forest cover through improvised rat-hole mining would have been minimal as compared to open-cast mining.
The CMPDIL officials endorse the view that the subsidence of land is minimum in case of rat-hole mining since during the course of mining, the workers maintain underground pillars at regular intervals and extraction of coal is done in between the two pillars only to prevent the soil overhead from collapsing.
Chairman of the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) Naba Bhattacharjee observed that previous generations of miners used to extract limited volume of coal and the same traditional method of rat-hole mining should have continued, albeit with improvements.
“It is too late now as we are set to adopt scientific mining as per the directions of the NGT and duly endorsed by the Supreme Court…so there is no other way and we have to go ahead with it,” Bhattacharjee said while comparing rat-hole mining and its impact on environment with that of the soon-to-be-used open-cast mining.
He, however, made it clear that the proposed scientific mining would prove to be a big boon for the state as it would generate a lot of royalty for the state exchequer.
Explaining the final steps in the journey towards scientific mining, he said the SEAC will issue the terms of reference to all the four projects proponents for preparation of the environment impact assessment (EIA) and environment management plan (EMP).
“These two reports are to be prepared by the four project proponents (applicants) through NABARD-empanelled consultants. They are the ones who will prepare the reports based on the terms of reference that we provide,” he said. He stated that these reports are meant to safeguard the environment in the proposed mining areas two of which are in East Jaintia Hills, one in West Jaintia Hills and another in South West Khasi Hills.
After the EIA and EMP reports are ready, the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board will call for public hearings where both the reports would be circulated in the local languages, Bhattacharjee said.
Asked when the scientific mining of coal would begin in Meghalaya, he said that if everything passes off smoothly, the SEAC will give its clearance in four-five months and then the MSPCB would grant the Consent to Establish (CTE) and Consent to Operate (CTO) to the four proponents.