The explosion came without warning. Deep inside a hillside in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district, a pocket of trapped methane ignited, tearing through a cramped network of tunnels barely wide enough for a man to crawl through. By the time the dust settled on Wednesday evening, at least 16 coal miners lay dead — most of them migrant workers from Assam and Nepal, earning a few hundred rupees a day in conditions that belong to a different century.
A Practice That Refuses to Die
Rat-hole mining — the practice of boring narrow, unventilated tunnels into hillsides to extract coal by hand — was banned by the National Green Tribunal in 2014 after a series of deadly accidents. But in Meghalaya's remote hills, where enforcement is thin and livelihoods are scarce, the ban exists largely on paper.
Locals estimate hundreds of illegal mines still operate across the Jaintia Hills, many of them controlled by powerful coal traders with political connections. Workers, desperate and disposable, rarely complain.
A Rescue Against the Odds
Three NDRF teams are on site, but the rescue is agonizingly slow. The mine's main shaft is barely four feet across. Toxic gases make it impossible to work without breathing apparatus. There is no electricity, no ventilation, and no mine map — because the mine was never supposed to exist.
"We are doing everything humanly possible," said the NDRF commander on site. "But the conditions are among the worst I have ever seen."
The Human Cost
The Meghalaya Chief Minister has announced Rs 5 lakh in compensation for each family and ordered a full investigation. But for the families waiting outside the mine entrance — many of whom traveled hundreds of kilometers on hearing the news — compensation is a cold word when what they want is a miracle.