TURA: A case has been registered with Williamnagar police after villagers alerted authorities to a hidden site in the jungle where a huge consignment of coal had been dumped for later shipment, once again revealing that illegal rat hole mining of coal is continuing right under the nose of authorities in some of the remote regions of Garo Hills.
It was a chance discovery for the authorities who had been tasked by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to ensure the ban against rat hole mining is in place in the coal belt region of Nangalbibra of South Garo Hills.
Coal from the Nangalbibra region passes through two routes – via Nengkra and Rongjeng into Assam and through Baghmara and Gasuapara into Bangladesh.
Last week, a group of villagers came forward to inform East Garo Hills district officials that a huge quantity of unclaimed coal had been lying inside a forest site at Nengkra Bolsalgre for a long time.
East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Swapnil Tembe directed the Divisional Mining Officer, R Thabah, to visit the site and conduct a probe.
The probe found that a huge amount of coal stocks totalling 31,998 metric tons had been kept hidden inside the Nengkra Bolsalgre jungle, 300 meters away from the main road between Nengkra and Dobu.
With no villager able to reveal the ownership of the coal, the consignment was placed in the seizure list and a police FIR was lodged in Williamnagar police station.
Preliminary report from the mining officer’s visit indicated that the coal had been extracted quite some time back and it is suspected that the owner of the consignment may have concealed it in the forest to avoid detection from the NGT teams which had been inspecting and sealing illegal mines shortly after the ban took effect a few years back.
Despite the ban, many cases of continued illegal mining were reported from several parts of the state, including Garo Hills. The alleged nexus between the coal mafia, some politicians and government officials, particularly policemen, is said to have fuelled the illegal activity despite a clampdown by the NGT.
Recently, the NGT had flagged the state about the movement of over 400 coal laden trucks from Gasuapara border point in South Garo Hills into neighbouring Bangladesh indicating a clear violation of the coal ban.
