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Rat-hole mining
Manual coal extraction technique From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Rat-hole mining or Rat mining[1] is a process of digging employed in North East India to extract coal, where a narrow hole is manually dug by extraction workers. The practice is banned by the National Green Tribunal;[2][3] however, the technique is still employed by artisanal mining operations in several parts of India, especially in Meghalaya.[4]
Technique
Rat-Hole Mining technique is a procedure of digging manually[5][6] wherein the worker involved in extraction can hardly crawl in and out, as a narrow tunnel is dug 3 to 4 feet in depth.[7][8] This technique is basically of two types:
- Side cutting method which is generally followed on slopes of hills by navigating through coal seams deposited on the rock layers and visible on the outer surface of rock and generally in darkish brown or black banded.
- Box cutting method which involves digging a round shape or square shape pit with a width of 5 square metre and depth of 400 feet. The method is followed in North Eastern India to extract coal.[9][10]
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Bans
As rat-hole mining involves working in dangerous conditions, causing environmental damage, and causes many accidents involving death and injuries, the technique is criticised and banned in many countries.[11] Rat-hole mining is banned in India by National Green Tribunal.[2]
Notable incidents
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2018 Meghalaya accident
The Meghalaya mining accident happened on 13 December 2018, when 15 miners were trapped in a mine in Ksan, in the Indian state of Meghalaya. While five miners managed to escape, rescue efforts for the remaining 10 continued till 2 March 2019.[12][13][14] After manually digging using a banned process known as rat-hole mining, the miners were trapped inside the coal mine at a depth of around 370 feet (110 meters) in Jaintia Hills district. The tunnel the miners were in flooded with water after they cut into an adjacent mine which was full of water from the nearby Lytein river.[15][16][17]
Service personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force began operations shortly after the miners were trapped. After a request for assistance from the district administration, teams from Coal India, Kirloskar Brothers, the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy joined the operation to rescue the miners.2021 incident near Rymbai
On 21 January 2021 six miners died in an incident in a mineshaft in an area of rat-hole mines in the East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya.[18]
Uttarakhand rescue
In late 2023 rat-hole miners were instrumental in the rescue of 41 workers who were trapped for 17 days after the road tunnel in Uttarakhand that they were digging collapsed.[19][20][21]
2025 Assam incident
In January 2025, miners became trapped underground in an illegal rat-hole mine in the Dima Hasao district of Assam, which as of 27 January 2025, has resulted in 4 deaths.[22][23]
See also
References
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