Shillong: The death toll from an explosion at an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills rose to 25 on Friday after seven more bodies were recovered, even as rescue teams continued to comb remote areas. Meanwhile, the police arrested two people for their involvement in the incident.
The explosion took place inside an unlicensed mine in Mynsingat-Thangskai area under Umpleng police outpost.The explosion took place inside an unlicensed mine in Mynsingat-Thangskai area under Umpleng police outpost.
“Total casualty is now 25. Eighteen bodies were recovered yesterday. Four more bodies were recovered today. One injured person died at NEIGRIHMS, and two bodies were brought by family members – one to Khalihariat Civil Hospital and the other to Jowai Civil Hospital,” said Vik Kumar, Superintendent of Police (SPD), East Jaintia Hills.
The police on Thursday registered a suo motu FIR at Khalihariat police station under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, Mines and Minerals (Development and Control) Act and Explosive Substances Act. “Two have been arrested so far,” Yadav said, adding that further investigations are underway to identify others involved in the operation.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and a special rescue unit are conducting rescue and search operations at the spot. The Director General of Police (DGP) said, “The search operation is still on, and all efforts are being made to trace any remaining victims and complete the identification process at the earliest.”
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The death has also drawn attention to rat-hole mining, a dangerous method that involves digging narrow horizontal tunnels, typically three to four feet high, to extract coal. The practice, prevalent in parts of Meghalaya, has been officially banned for over a decade.
Amid growing public anger, Meghalaya-based NGO HinewTrep Integrated Territorial Organization (HITO) stepped up pressure on the government by submitting a petition to Governor CH Vijayashankar, demanding a central agency probe into the incident.
In the letter, HITO rejected attempts to portray the explosion as an accident, accusing the political leadership of failing to maintain sustainable protection and deliberate non-enforcement that allowed illegal mining to flourish. The organization argued that district-level officials are regularly scapegoated after such disasters, while political influencers remain untouchable.
The organization has also questioned the citizenship status of several deceased workers, calling for no compensation or ex gratia payments until the citizenship is finally verified. It pointed to the mining location, effectively described as “no man’s land” under Meghalaya’s land tenure system, vulnerable to encroachment by money, muscle power and political patrons.
Despite the ban on mining by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Supreme Court, several incidents have resulted in the deaths of workers in these mines.
In 2019, Justice BP Katake (retd), who headed an NGT-appointed committee on the matter, submitted several recommendations to regulate rat-hole coal mining in Meghalaya. These recommendations were made based on the directions issued by the Supreme Court in July 2019.
A Supreme Court order allowed the sale of mined coal before the NGT’s 2014 ban on rat-hole mining in Meghalaya. This was used as a loophole to extract fresh coal and offload it as old stockpiles.
In 2022, the Meghalaya High Court again asked a panel headed by Justice Katki to review the compliance. In his preliminary findings, the former judge alleged gross violations of the tribunal and court orders.
