{"id":4032,"date":"2016-03-02T22:42:55","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T17:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4032"},"modified":"2026-07-17T20:52:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:22:39","slug":"meghalaya-miners-rat-hole-mines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=4032","title":{"rendered":"74 Days and Counting: How We All Have Failed the Trapped Meghalaya Miners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span class=\"dropcap\">I<\/span>t\u2019s been 74 days and Justina Dkhar, a 45-year-old woman from Lumthari village of <\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/outdoors\/meghalaya-shillong-betting-archery-dreams-gambling-khasi\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meghalaya\u2019s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> East Jaintia Hills District, is waiting for some information on her two sons. She knows that the news, when it comes in, is going to be ominous. Her sons Iong, 20, and Nilam, 22, took up work at the rat-hole mines at Ksan, 15 kilometres away from home, so that they could earn some extra cash before Christmas. Little did they know that the darkness inside the mine would swallow them. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Dkhar brothers and their 22-year-old cousin crawled inside the 320 feet-deep coal mine along with 12 other miners on December 13, only to be trapped after water gushed in. Since then, the rescue team has been able to spot two decomposing bodies, but only been able to retrieve one. Last month, state authorities claimed that rescue ops might be in vain, since the miners might have already died; the Supreme Court, however, has ordered that the search should continue.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But with each passing day, the chance of a miracle diminishes. That said, one cannot overlook the lackadaisical response to the tragedy by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/scroll.in\/article\/908336\/holidays-happened-for-10-days-apathetic-meghalaya-government-did-little-to-rescue-trapped-miners\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">government<\/span><\/a>,<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which was on a break for Christmas and New Year holidays. It was only a week after the tragedy that rescue ops gathered steam. On December 30, almost two weeks since the incident, a retired official of Coal India Ltd <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ndtv.com\/india-news\/meghalaya-rescue-operation-updates-authorities-preparing-for-final-push-1969965\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">told<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ANI that pumps to pull out\u00a0 water from the mine had arrived at the site but generators had not. Over 200 rescuers from the Navy, National Disaster Response Force, and the fire services were trying to drain out water from the flooded mine, and it still seemed like an uphill task. \u00a0<\/span>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-44752\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1547802441.jpg\" alt=\"meghalaya\" width=\"594\" height=\"389\" \/>\n\nThe National Green Tribunal banned rat-hole mining in Meghalaya, calling it unscientific and citing ecological hazards.\n\nImage Credits: Getty Images\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After all, the workers are trapped inside a narrow mine: Two-to-three-foot-wide tunnels are dug into mountains, and workers, often <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/earth-humans-population-children\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">children<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, descend hundreds of feet on bamboo ladders to dig out the coal. The narrow alleys allow only one miner to pass at a time and they crawl for five to six hours to extract the coal. These mines are as tiny and suffocating as rat-holes, which is where they get their name from. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The mines, however, are illegal. In April 2014, the National Green Tribunal banned rat-hole mining in Meghalaya, calling it unscientific and citing ecological hazards and unsafe working conditions. Yet, there are at least 5,000 illegal rat-hole mines still operational in the state. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\">Perhaps our concern is even lesser, considering that the miners come from the Northeast<\/blockquote>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, on January 6, two more workers died at another mine in East Jaintia Hills. And despite these tragedies, just a few kilometres from where the miners have been trapped, more workers, undeterred by the dangers, continue to crawl inside these death traps. A Citizens\u2019 Report, compiled by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/delhi-india-lynching-junaid-not-in-my-name-protests-modi\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">activists<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and journalists and submitted to Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae Colin Gonsalves, points out, \u201cA worker carries with him a pickaxe, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow. As the cave is dark, he carries a torch\u2026 If water has seeped into the cave, the worker can enter only after the water is pumped out. Workers usually enter the cave early in the morning and keep on working until they are tired, or hungry, or when they feel that they have earned enough money for the day.\u201d<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The working conditions are dismal and there are no labour laws protecting these miners. The work they take up is illegal, but what choice do they have anyway? In a land of few <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/information-technology-software-development-testing-clients-meetings-presentations-excel-sheets-corporate-life-office-employee-frustration\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">employment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> opportunities, a day inside the mine earns them \u20b91,500 to \u20b92,000. The other option is to toil on farms or sell vegetables and earn a meagre \u20b9150 a day. <\/span>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-44751\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1547802385.jpg\" alt=\"meghalaya_miners_rat_holes\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" \/>\n\nWorkers usually enter the cave early in the morning and keep on working until they are tired, hungry, or when they feel they have earned enough money for the day.\n\nImage Credits: Getty Images\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The miners continue to go back to these hell-holes because they are desperate, and the politicians continue to exploit them because they have vested interests. Just two weeks after the tragedy, Vincent H Pala, Lok Sabha MP from the Shillong Constituency, told the House that rat-hole mining should be regularised. Insensitivity is what we have come to expect from our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/indian-politicians-sexual-harassment-me-too\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">politicians<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but Pala has a lot more at stake.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Citizens\u2019 Report names Pala, four ministers in the Conrad Sangma-led government, and seven MLAs, and alleges that these politicians or their relatives are coal-mine owners. \u201cThis is just a sample from the political class \u2014 an independent audit of coal mines will reveal that many bureaucrats, technocrats, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/grub\/gujaratis-despise-non-vegetarians-and-support-vegetarian-food-habits\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">police<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> people are involved in mining business,\u201d according to the report. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis nexus (between coal mafia and politicians) has not only meant that any existing administrative oversight, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/satire\/drug-peddler-income-tax-ganja-illegal\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tax<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> collection regime, and environmental regulation would be violated but also that orders passed by NGT and consequently the Hon\u2019ble Supreme Court of India would be blatantly violated by the local coal barons with active support of the State government.\u201d<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rat-hole mining in Meghalaya is no secret. In fact, it\u2019s the state\u2019s dirty truth which propels its economy and politics. It\u2019s a glorious racket, and the possible death of 15 miners from the lowest rungs of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/arre-checklist-humans-of-housing-society\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">society<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will hardly cause a whimper. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But let\u2019s not hold the politicians to a higher standard. Our apathy cannot be ignored; in fact, it only highlights the disregard we have for the lives of the poor in our country.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We care as much about the Meghalaya miners as we do for the workers on construction sites in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/mumbai-brats-manhattan-problems-bubble\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mumbai<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who toil without helmets, or the hapless sanitation workers in Delhi who step into sewers without masks and die from toxic inhalations. Perhaps our concern is even lesser, considering that the miners come from the Northeast \u2013 a part of India that many of us sitting in our air-conditioned apartments associate with momos and rock music. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contrast this with the rescue of the 13 school boys trapped in a cave in Thailand last June. The operation lasted for two weeks and it captured the world\u2019s imagination. We prayed for the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/elon-musk-submarine-thai-cave-mumbai-rains-city\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thai<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> boys, tweeted about it, and cheered their rescue. Back home, in an election season, the story of the Meghalaya miners is relegated to the inside pages of national newspapers. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile in East Jaintia Hills, Justina Dkhar will make the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/keechad-monsoon-trek-khatron-ke-khiladi\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">trek<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the mine along with family members of other trapped miners. She has just one hope \u2013 the body that is pulled out of the mine next belongs to one of her sons.<\/span>\n\n<em>Edited by Gauri Ghadi.<\/em>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though the half-hearted response of the Meghalaya government in organising rescue operations for the miners trapped in a rat-hole mine in Meghalaya is appalling, let\u2019s not hold the politicians to a higher standard. Our apathy cannot be ignored; in fact, it only highlights the disregard we have for the lives of the poor in our country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":328,"featured_media":4036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[7369,3644,3367,7370,7371,435,1238,7372,5018,7373,7374,7375],"class_list":["post-4032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-coal-mafia","tag-deaths","tag-government","tag-meghalaya","tag-miners","tag-mines","tag-new-years-eve","tag-northeast","tag-politicians","tag-rat-holes","tag-workers","tag-working-conditions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>74 Days and Counting: How We All Have Failed the Trapped Meghalaya Miners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Though the half-hearted response of the Meghalaya government in organising rescue operations for the miners trapped in a rat-hole mine in Meghalaya is appalling, let\u2019s not hold the politicians to a higher standard. 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Our apathy cannot be ignored; in fact, it only highlights the disregard we have for the lives of the poor in our country.","og_url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4032","og_site_name":"Arr\u00e9","article_published_time":"2016-03-02T17:12:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-17T15:22:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1520,"height":850,"url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1547802799.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kyrmenlang Uriah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"74 Days and Counting: How We All Have Failed the Trapped Meghalaya Miners","twitter_description":"Though the half-hearted response of the Meghalaya government in organising rescue operations for the miners trapped in a rat-hole mine in Meghalaya is appalling, let\u2019s not hold the politicians to a higher standard. 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