IT is ironic that the only legacy the outgoing Rajya Sabha member WR Kharlukhi will leave is to advocate for lifting the ban on coal mining ostensibly because too many people depend on rat hole mining for their livelihoods. He could add that it is also the easiest way for sharks to earn money by sending migrant workers to negotiate those dangerous mines and if their luck fails, they are destined to die inside those very mines. No questions are asked and no one is penalized for causing such inhuman deaths inside a mine. The irony is doubled because on the very same day that Kharlukhi pleaded for reopening mines, the dead body of a 41 year old man was retrieved from an abandoned mine by the State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF). The man had gone to fetch water from the abandoned mine when he fell in and it took 8 days to retrieve his body.
Now this is where the rat hole mining business gets complicated. In the many years Kharlukhi was a Rajya Sabha member he never once approached the Ministry of Mining and Geology to assist the state in reclaiming the abandoned mines which pose a past and present danger. According to the Centre for Science and Environment there are about 25,000 to 26,000 abandoned and unscientific rat hole mines in Meghalaya of which about 22,000 are in East Jaintia Hills. Since the 1980s when PA Sangma was Chief Minister he had broached the topic of reclaiming these abandoned mines because they posed a danger. The then Chief Secretary, KK Sinha had broached the subject with the central ministries but nothing happened. After that the matter was forgotten. People continued to die inside these rat hole mines which is why the National Green Tribunal banned rat hole mining until safety measures are in place.
Those who propose lifting the ban on rat-hole mining should have a blueprint for safety of miners. In fact, civil society groups from Meghalaya should approach the courts on the need for the state to create a reclamation plan whereby all the 25,000 mines are filled up and reforested. Until that plan is implemented in letter and spirit merely lifting the ban on rat hole mining to allow a few influential politicians to get their kickbacks from the trade-off, should not be allowed to happen. If the people of Meghalaya cannot take responsibility for the resuscitation of nature they are headed towards a major environmental catastrophe.Death inside a coal mines happen because miners are digging horizontally for coal and suddenly they hit an abandoned mine that is flooded. The water then enters the active mine and before the miners can exit, they are sucked in the floodwaters and die inside. It takes a while before they are found. This happened in the Ksan Mining Tragedy that claimed 15 lives in December 2018. That these politicians from Meghalaya cannot think beyond the immediate profit and have not an iota of care or responsibility for the environment has been proved times without number. The Wah Lukha poisoned through acid mine drainage has not healed and no one cares. This is where the law must take its course and human greed must be nipped in the bud.
