Rat-Hole Mining:
The rat-hole mining tragedy in Assam’s Dima Hasao district, where nine miners were trapped after a flood in an illegal coal mine, highlights the persistent dangers of unregulated mining despite existing bans.Also, biomining is being conducted at the Koottupatha trenching ground in Palakkad, Kerala.Rat-hole mining is a primitive, crude, labor-intensive and hazardous method of coal mining.It involves digging of very small tunnels, usually only 3-4 feet deep and 2 to 3 feet wide into the ground, in which workers, more often children, enter and extract coal.It is typically practiced in northeastern India, particularly in Meghalaya and Assam.
