I had already mentioned stuffs regarding coal mine fires, one of the little known hazardous consequences of coal mining, in one of my past articles. I would like to bring another negative effect of this for the local people near the mines.

I want to focus on the coal mines in Meghalaya, which falls under the region of Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion (an area ecologically defined area smaller than a bioregion). Apart from agriculture and the cement industry, coal mines serve as one of the cheap economic activities of the region, with major of the coal being exported to Assam and Bangladesh.

On 13 July 2012, Times of India reported that ten coal miners were killed after being trapped in a coal pit of Meghalaya's South Garo Hills. The reason was reported to be unscientific mining. Going into more details it was reported 15 of the 25 miners survived when trapped inside a part of an abandoned mine which had been filled with acidic water. And for the rest ten? It was just declared that "they have very little hope of those inside still alive."

And I shall point out another weird thing of the incident. I don't know if the fault of system or the media, but it was reported that "the whereabouts of the fifteen miners who reportedly managed to come out of the pit are still unknown" (and I doubt their survival even).

I tried finding more about the lives of these miners. Most of them are reported to be aged between 7 and 17, making them fairly younger than me. A majority of them are lured from Nepal and other faraway lands by the brutal story tellers who spin fairy tales like: the beautiful Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, a coal rich region infamous for unscientific and illegal coal mining, has got money bags buried deep inside the 50 mt deep coal holes. The local police say they don't have any control over such incidents since mining is a private enterprise of the region. Exploiting the miners who suffer potential nervous and respiratory problems, lack of health center makes use of illegal drugs a widespread and accepted practice of the region.

I would like to refer one of the reports from Tehelka, an Indian political weekly: "The rain water has not been drained from a neighboring quarry. Sanu Rai, 15, is struggling to start a water pump. He makes his way down the slippery ladder. Half-way, he jumps onto an iron pipe and fiddles with something there. Twenty minutes later, he emerges victorious: the pump starts working. "I was studying in class 5," Sanu says about the time a contractor visited his village in Nepal with glowing tales about the Jaintia Hills. "I never thought I?d work in coal mines, risking my life," he says. "But my parents were convinced by that man. Children have died in these mines but I work here to support my family." "

And yes the state government is yet to pass any law to check this! I don't understand where things go wrong when the case is so obvious revolving with the helpless kids. Is it like the governtment is lazy and careless or there's some underlying stuffs paying the government to go blind?

(Image Courtesy: The Northeast Today)