The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has given a landmark judgment banning rat hole mining in the Jaintia Hills. Interestingly this Order came as a response to a petition from a Dimasa organisation of North Cachar Hills which is bearing the brunt of the acid mine drainage (AMD) that is leaching into their water systems and has turned it toxic like the rivers in Jaintia Hills. But this is just one of the adverse impacts of rat hole mining. There are others which are equally devastating. The loss of human lives inside the mines has not been documented. It cannot be presumed that mining accidents have happened only recently when the media have reported these cases. Deaths must have occurred in the past too but lack of media attention into mining activities for several years has allowed the mine owners a license to pulverize all the laws for their mercenary ends.
There are those who argue that the state has earned substantial revenue from coal exports. But is that not blood money considering that the environment is irretrievably devastated? There has been no talk of reclaiming the black, desolate wastelands because there is no record of the mines abandoned and of those that are still functioning. Hence the mines cannot be filled up lest there are still active mines and miners inside them. Nowhere else in this country are such destructive mining practices allowed without corporate social responsibility from the mine owners! State control over mining activities is clearly enunciated in the State Mining and Minerals Policy, 2013, but where is the political will to implement it? The State Government is hamstrung over its implementation for it would antagonize all the mine owners, many of whom are also elected representatives with a lot of financial clout.
Now that the NGT has given its orders it remains to be seen if the State Government will rise to the occasion and follow the diktat. If not, what penalties could the NGT impose on the Government? There are murmurs of cynicism mainly from Government quarters that the NGT order is only another piece of paper. It is time for environmentally concerned citizens’ groups to hold the Government to account on this one!
