Illegal rat-hole mining in Meghalaya, particularly in its East Jaintia Hill district,
has come into limelight since the murderous attack on well-known...
Shillong-based anti-mining activist Agnes Kharshiing in November 2018, and the...
death of at least 15 miners in a mine in that area last December. Rat-hole mining...
is being carried out in the state in spite of the ban by the National Green Tribunal...
and the Supreme Court. The attack on Kharshiing and fellow activist...
Amita Sangma was allegedly masterminded by influential mine owners who enjoy the...
state’s political patronage. When the Sadak Se Sansad team visited Kharshiing at....
her house in Shillong, there were armed policemen to guard her. Even after four...
months having passed, she is still to fully recover from the injuries caused...
by the assault. The operation to bring out the bodies of the miners is still on.
Local residents complain that with huge tracts of land going for mining, they...
have not only lost their traditional means of livelihood, agriculture, but it is also...
causing loss of their natural water bodies. These water bodies have been...
their source of everyday use, including drinking water.
In 2017, I was called by...
the people from certain villages in East Jaintia Hills. They told us...
that their land was taken away, they were doing cultivation and a lot of...
blasting was done under the houses where they stay. These people, when I asked why don't you...
talk with them? Those people say, the big mafia people, they say bring the rope and...
we'll hang you. So, these people are scared. They called us and when I went...
there I took media also, one media, and we brought out a press release on January 14,
2017 and they told us that the water is contaminated. While coming back, we..
talked to some women, they're carrying all the clothes in this...
that we call 'khoh' - this is made out of bamboo. They said that we have...
to go a long way to wash the clothes and drink water.
I said, don't you get water? They said the rich people buy water and some of...
them they get water given by cement plants. They come and bring water and...
then they all take water. You have your own land but the water has been
destroyed so you have to wait for these people to come and give you water.
Experts like professor O.P. Singh of the Department of Environment at the...
NEHU, who have been studying the region’s water bodies, agree with the locals.
Coal contains pyrite. It's iron sulphite and then when it reacts with water and..
air, it forms sulphuric acid and then that somehow reaches...
the water bodies and those water bodies become acidic. The acidity is measured in...
terms of pH, in pH units, and pH 7 is neutral and...
below 7 is acidic. pH has gone down to around three, so you can say that it's...
highly acidic in Meghalaya, particularly in Jaintia Hills. Due to this acidity, the water has become devoid of...
any life. So, you will not find any fish or any higher animal in the waters of Jaintia Hills.
Acidic water is not good for health, this aspect nobody has studied so far.
Singh’s study was taken note of by the NGT in 2014...
when it ordered a ban on rat-hole mining in the state.
The petitioners, All Dimasa Students' Union from neighbouring Assam, sought a ban...
on it as the water of River Kopili was turning acidic, and depriving them of...
drinking water. In the East Jaintia Hills district too, residents are facing the...
same situation but they are afraid of opposing illegal mining due to the...
influence that the mine owners enjoy.
Whenever these trucks are being found on the highway, they don't pay challan...
It seems they pay everyone....to agents and the police and...
enforcement. Everyone has their cut.
Prof. Singh too talked about threats to his students' safety. The Supreme Court has refused to lift the ban on
transportation of the already mined coal from the region but that has not led to...
a stop to the illegal activity. Huge heaps of freshly mined coal can be seen...
everywhere in and around Khliehriat, the district headquarters, but no one is...
allowed to click photos.
Today, we have brought you this episode of Sadak Se Sansad with a lot of difficulty...
I am at a place which is actually a beautiful lake...
about 60 KMs from the Meghalaya state capital - Shillong.
To my right is this highway where...
it'll take you to Jowai which is the headquarters of West Jaintia Hills.
To the left where you can see the trucks and the vehicles moving is to Khliehriat...
which is the headquarters of East Jaintia Hills.
Khliehriat is also known for rat-hole mining.
The quality of the water is very different from what we saw in Khliehriat...
The story that we brought to you today is about people living in Khliehriat and...
that area where rat-hole mining continues. What we saw was that massive
fear on the ground with the common people, they don't want to come on camera...
to talk about how the rat-hole mining is affecting their lives...
particularly their everyday needs like drinking water, water to wash...
their clothes. They took us to a lot of places where we could click some of the...
photos and that too clandestinely because we were throughout...
tailed by people who actually run this illegal business.
They were also interested in knowing who we are and where have we come from so every...
photograph, every shot that we had showed you in this video is clicked clandestinely.
The genesis of the problem goes back to the time when the Sixth Schedule was made and...
when Meghalaya was just born. The Indian government decided to keep Meghalaya's mining...
outside the ambit of the Mining Act. Number two is the size of the seams...
The seams in Meghalaya are very narrow. So, it's not feasible to actually mine...
coal here in a scientific manner. The third part is that ever since...
mining started with the money that was got from mining because obviously...
investment levels are very low and returns are very high so everybody and their...
uncles wanted to get into mining. There was no attempt made to ensure that...
the revenue, the wealth generated from mining, was diffused at least evenly among the people of the area.
If we go back to early 90s when the timber trade was banned.. We found that in West Khasi Hills...
there were two generations of people who were involved in the trade and...
did not know how to get back to agriculture. No attempt was made to build up...
their capacity to take up jobs other than the timber related jobs and...
immediately the fallout was that we had the birth of militant organisation
called HNLC. I feel that here in the case of Jaintia Hills as well...
the situation is very similar. As far as the land owners and the mine owners are concerned...
they've made their money, and they've invested in real estate.
I think now a massive awareness campaign has to be carried out. It took Agnes Kharshiing...
getting beaten up for them to respond to that problem.
Sitting MP and Congress candidate Vincent Pala has sought lifting of the Supreme Court ban on...
rat-hole mining claiming that it has deprived the means of livelihood of the...
local people.
The political economy also thrives on this illegal trade.
Somebody will have to say - okay, enough.