Why illegal rat-hole mines flourish in Assam and exact a huge human cost

On the morning of January 6, when Babul Chandra Das from Tezpur, saw the news on TV, about an accident in a rat-hole mine near Umrangso in the Dima Hasao district of Assam, he became anxious. That’s where his wife’s elder brother Sanjit Sarkar, 35, had gone to work. Das and the rest of Sanjit’s family in Raichenga, a village in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal, tried contacting him over phone several times, in vain. Eventually, someone picked up the phone to deliver the news – Sanjit was indeed trapped inside the mine, which was then engulfed by water.

About 15 km from Umrangso, an industrial town in Dima Hasao, is a small village called 3 Kilo. As the last known settlement and marketplace in the area, 3 Kilo serves as the starting point for a roughly two-hour drive along a rough, dusty jungle road to Kalamati, where Assam Coal Quarry – the site of the accident – is situated.

Das, along with Sanjit’s father Krishnapada Sarkar and father-in-law Anil Sarkar, reached the site on the evening of January 7. They are currently staying in the same room which Sanjit was sharing with Rajeev Barman (39), Khusi Mohan Rai (57) and Sarpa…

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