From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI, May 19: Unscientific rat-hole coal mining before and after the National Green Tribunal ban has been blamed for many of Meghalaya’s ills, including the death of several coal miners underground.
A recent study has shown that such mining is polluting water and making it scarce in the state, often referred to as the abode of clouds.
The study by G. Srinivasan, the director of the US-based Consortium for Sustainable Development, said the mines abandoned after the extraction of coal leave gaping pits that let water in.
“Consequently, surface run-offs have considerably reduced in volume: the expanding network of underground channels of human creation is now draining the rivers. This, in turn, explains why there is an acute shortage of potable water on the surface,” said the study quoted by Mongabay, an American conservation news web portal.
Meghalaya’s water bodies are also impacted by acidic mine drainage from the sulphur-rich coal mines. Coal and other mining activities have already wreaked havoc in the social and cultural lives of the region’s people, with civil rights activists voicing their concerns about the worsening environmental conditions in the state.
Further, timber logging has destroyed swathes of forests, threatening biodiversity and water resources. The study said that in East Khasi Hills, the dense forest area declined sharply from 1,480 km² to 828 km² between 2002 and 2013, driven by extensive deforestation, logging, and land conversion.
To make the situation worse, the reported discovery of significant mineral deposits like bauxite, high-grade limestone, and traces of lithium in various districts of Meghalaya has rung the alarm bells. Among the key findings is the lack of clarity on the impact of mining activities on the state’s environment.
In the geological past, interactions between the land and the sea in the southern part had initiated continental and marine deposition, creating mineral resources like coal and limestone. Coal in Meghalaya was formed about 50-33 million years ago in the lakes, the study said.
Because the coal was formed in spatially restricted lakes, the coal seams are lensoidal (lenticular) – thick in the middle but pinching out laterally, and with a scattered distribution. Therefore, it is not feasible to conduct large-scale commercial mining as in other parts of the country where large coal deposits are formed in aerially huge swamps, the study added.