Six Migrant Workers Die in Meghalaya

Six Migrant workers found dead in Meghalaya forest

Six migrant workers in Assam fell into a 150 feet pit in a forest of Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills and died. In December 2018, fifteen men had disappeared inside an illegal rat hole after it collapsed completely. The locals claimed that the bodies of the workers that were found inside the pit this morning were digging an illegal coal mine.

The sources of the government say that there were no coal mines in that area and the workers were only indulging in cutting and shaping the hard soil for different purposes. In the state of Meghalaya the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has banned the mining of coal. In the north eastern states accidents and mishaps that occur in the illegal mines raise some serious questions about the unchecked coal mining right under the nose of the state governments even after the ban imposed by NGT in 2014 say environmental activists and scientists.

In the highway of the states of the north-east freshly cut blocks of coals are seen on the back of the trucks being transported from one place to another. An estimate of 5000 illegal rat hole mines are present mostly in East Jaintia hills. There was a slowdown of economic activities up to 70 per cent after coal mining was banned in 2014.