Navigating the Issue of Illegal Rat-Hole Mining
On 9th February 2026, Meghalaya Chief Minister announced to constitute a judicial inquiry commission to investigate blast in an illegal rat-hole coal mine that killed 27 miners.
Understanding Rat-hole Mining
- Rat-hole mining is a primitive and hazardous method of extracting coal, primarily practiced in Meghalaya.
Types
- Side-cutting: Digging narrow tunnels into hill slopes until the coal seam is reached.
- Box-cutting: Digging a rectangular pit (at least 5 sq. meters) up to 400 feet deep. Once the coal seam is found, lateral "rat-hole" tunnels are dug in all directions.
Why is rat-hole mining prevalent in Meghalaya?
- Geological Factors: Coal seams ....
Do You Want to Read More?
Subscribe Now
Take Annual Subscription and get the following Advantage
The annual members of the Civil Services Chronicle can read the monthly content of the magazine as well as the Chronicle magazine archives.
Readers can study all the material before the last six months of the Civil Services Chronicle monthly issue in the form of Chronicle magazine archives.
Related Content
- 1 WASH Warriors
- 2 CSIR Integrated Skill Initiative
- 3 GeM Marks Seven Years of Womaniya Initiative
- 4 Jamma Bane Lands
- 5 Model Youth Gram Sabha (MYGS)
- 6 Lambadi Community
- 7 Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)
- 8 Continuation of Atal Pension Yojana
- 9 Satta-Watta Marriage System
- 10 Demographic Winter and Its Socio-Economic Impact
- 1 Gender Budgeting: Unlocking Women’s Empowerment and Economic Equality in India
- 2 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour
- 3 Economic Viability of Shorter All-Oral TB Treatment in India
- 4 India Highlights Rights-Based, People-Centric Development at UN Forum
- 5 Centre Targets Six Crore 'Lakhpati Didis' by 2029-30
- 6 PAC Highlights Implementation Gaps in SANKALP Scheme
- 7 India Registers Landmark Progress in Organ Donation & Transplantation
- 8 Goa Promotes SHe-Box Portal Under POSH Act, 2013
- 9 PRIYA Trial on Vitamin B12
- 10 Rashtriya Karmayogi Large Scale Jan Seva Program
- 11 PM-SURAJ Portal
- 12 PM-POSHAN
- 13 Kaushal Rath: Promoting AI literacy under ‘Yuva AI for All’ Initiative
- 14 Khula
- 15 Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)
- 16 National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST)
- 17 Sangtam Tribe
- 18 Tender Years Doctrine
