Assam: Father kills 4-month-old daughter, arrested
A man has been arrested in Assam’s Tinsukia district for killing his four-month-old daughter owing to a quarrel with his wife, officials said on Sunday.
Three workers have been trapped in an illegal rat-hole mine in the Patkai Hills of Tinsukia district, Assam.
Rescue operations are ongoing to free the workers from the mine. Among the three, one is from Nepal and the other two are from Meghalaya, officials said on Sunday.
The workers were extracting illegal coal from the rat-hole mine when a landslide occurred, trapping them inside at 12.30 am.
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The Ledo-Margherita region, approximately 571 km from the capital Guwahati, is rich in coal reserves located in the foothills of Patkai.
Concern over illegal coal mining in the northeastern region has been previously raised by various groups.
At least six labourers were killed in an accident inside an abandoned coal mine in Meghalaya in 2021.
The incident has revived long-standing questions surrounding coal mining in the Northeast, questions that were heightened by a tragedy in the East Jaintia Hills two years earlier.
On December 13, 2018, 15 miners died when an illegal rat-hole mine in Ksan was flooded by water from the nearby Lytein river.
Following the accident, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) fined the state government Rs 100 crore for illegal coal mining.
Coal found in Meghalaya and other parts of the Northeast is high in sulfur, posing a significant environmental threat.
However, it is prized for its low-ash content, which is lower than other Indian coals, making it more efficient for industries such as power generation.
According to the Union government’s Coal Directory of India 2010-11, coal from Meghalaya is primarily sent to other northeastern states and northern non-coal-producing states like Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan. It is also exported to neighbouring countries.
In April 2014, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered a ban on coal mining in Meghalaya, which is primarily conducted through rat-hole mines, and also banned the transportation of coal extracted through such methods.
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