Rat-hole mining or rat mining 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; however, the technique is still employed by artisanal mining operations in several parts of India, especially in Meghalaya.
Technique
Rat-hole mining is a technique of digging manually wherein the worker involved in extraction can hardly crawl in and out, as a narrow tunnel is dug deep. This technique is of two basic types: The side-cutting method is generally used on hill slopes 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. The box-cutting method involves digging a narrow pit up to deep. The method is used in North Eastern India to extract coal.
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. Rat-hole mining is banned in India by National Green Tribunal.
Notable incidents
2018 Meghalaya accident
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.
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.
2025 Assam incident
In January 2025, miners became trapped underground in an illegal rat-hole mine in the Dima Hasao district of Assam, which resulted in at least 9 confirmed deaths.
References