250 mines shut down in a week as Assam widens crackdown after deaths of 9 miners

Following the incident, the state government announced that it would begin sealing all illegal rat-hole mines in the Umrangso reserves and said 220 such mines had been identified. While authorities in Dima Hasao began this work last week, “sealing” 33 such illegal mines so far, authorities are also cracking down more than 500 km away in the coal reserves in Tinsukia district, where a total of 234 illegal mines have been dismantled so far.

“The Chief Minister had given me a direction that it came to his knowledge that rat-hole mining is going on in Margherita, Ledo, Lekhapani areas. I visited yesterday with the IG and SP. All the stakeholders – the mining department, the district administration, police administration, the forest department, Coal India Limited – have all been given directions that wherever rat-hole mining is going on, it will have to be completely shut down within seven days,” Assam DGP GP Singh said on January 19 during a visit to Tinsukia district.

In the coal mining belt of the Margherita and Ledo region of Assam’s Tinsukia district, Coal India Limited has its North Eastern Coalfields (NEC), where it has six collieries of which only two – Tirap and Tikak – are being operated.

According to Tinsukia DC Swapneel Paul, the crackdown is being conducted largely in areas under Coal India Limited’s leasehold.

According to data accessed by The Indian Express, 173 such illegal mines have been dismantled in land leased by Coal India Limited and on revenue, while another 61 mines have been have been dismantled in forest areas.

However, officials in the district administration, police and Coal India Limited said they have not yet collated the total number of such mines identified and shut down during the ongoing crackdown, saying it is a continuing process involving multiple agencies.

Joint teams from the district administration, Coal India Limited, the Forest department, the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited and the police have been dismantling rat-home mines and seizing equipment in the region.

When asked about the criminal investigation in connection with the operation of illegal mines in the area, Tinsukia SP Gaurav Abhijit Dilip said, “Cases have been registered, it is an ongoing matter. Forty-five cases had been registered last year. Cases are registered whenever Coal India, Forest or any other agency reports them.”

In the meantime, the visuals of miners who worked in these mines lining up at Ledo railway station to go back to their homes in different parts of Assam have raised questions on the continuing prevalence of widespread illegal rat-hole mining in the area, despite extensive documentation of the same.

The report of a commission helmed by Justice B P Katakey (retired) in 2021, on allegations of illegal mining in Reserve Forests under Digboi Forest Division, had highlighted illegal rat-hole mining in areas under the NEC by “some other persons/organisations”. The report also said authorities were cognizant of the large-scale extraction of coal through illegal mining by other parties citing a 2018 letter by the then Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil) Margherita to the Directorate of Geology and Mining, estimating that hundreds of people carry “30-40 kg of coal per person per day”.

Asom Jatiya Parishad general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan said, “While we have been saying that illegal rat-hole mining has been happening in the area for years, the government has been in denial all this time and the B P Katakey report had been thrown in the dustbin. Now, they are finally agreeing that it is happening. But along with shutting down mines, action also has to be taken against those who have done this and allowed this to happen. The amount of revenue lost to this will also have to be estimated.”