Can a mountain of coal go missing? That’s the question at hand for authorities in Meghalaya, who are searching for almost 4,000 metric tonnes (40 lakh kilograms) of illegally mined coal in two remote villages in the South West Khasi Hills district. An aerial survey across the four coal mining districts of West Khasi Hills, South West Khasi Hills, East Jaintia Hills and South Garo Hills was conducted earlier this year in response to allegations that illegal mining was continuing in the state despite bans by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal. The survey’s findings, submitted in March, showed a staggering 1.92 lakh metric tonnes of illegally mined coal in these districts. A follow-up survey conducted by the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority detected an additional quantity of nearly 4,000 MT of illegally mined coal in two districts in the South West Khasi Hills – 1,839 MT in a village named Diengnan and 2,121 MT in Rajaju. Accordingly, in May, an official from the South West Khasi Hills district administration visited the two villages for physical inspection and seizure. What the official, however, found was a paltry 2.5 MT in Diengngan and 8 MT in Rajaju – just 10.5 MT of coal where 3,960 MT should have been. This was taken note of by the Meghalaya High Court last month, based on a report by the Justice (Retd) B P Katakey Committee, a one-man panel appointed to monitor coal mining. Remarking that “unknown persons, it appears, have lifted and transported the coal”, a Bench of Justices H S Thangkhiew and W Diengdoh directed the state to take urgent action by identifying officials under whose watch it happened, and tracing the people who lifted this coal. What followed was a firestorm in the state. The outcry was exacerbated when Excise Minister Kyrmen Shylla suggested that the coal may have been “swept away” by heavy rain. South West Khasi Hills District Collector Barnari Mawlong told The Indian Express that looking for the coal has been fraught with difficulties. “The instructions for the aerial survey had come from Shillong, and after it was done, we asked for the coordinates in March to take follow-up action. However, all we got initially were coordinates without village names, which is very difficult for officers to follow. Later, we got these two places. My team went to these remote places and said that they had found this amount of 10 MT, so we took it as correct. When the High Court’s order came, we said, let the district headquarters do an enquiry. One senior official has been put in charge,” he said. He said the district is exploring three possibilities: that the coal is indeed missing; that the initial inspection had not been done at accurate locations; or errors in the interpretation of the aerial images. A follow-up inspection over three days last week, following the court’s order, has led to the discovery of around 500 MT of the coal, Mawlong said. “The officer responsible and his team tried to rope in as many people who are in the know of the area, and with their help, they tried to find the locations. It is a thickly forested area with very few settlements. It is hilly, and some stretches have sheer cliffs. On top of that, the monsoon here has lashing rain and fog, which makes visibility close to nothing. So, in a meeting with Justice Katakey, we have asked for another month so that, weather permitting, we can find out more about this,” he said. Justice Katakey, who conducted the meeting with district authorities on Monday, raised another concern while this search continues: The need to act urgently on physically verifying and seizing the rest of the illegally mined coal, expressing concern that it remains vulnerable to illegal transportation and pilferage. He told The Indian Express that he is particularly concerned about the East Jaintia Hills district, where 1.8 lakh MT had been detected in 1,572 coal dumps. “In East Jaintia Hills, I have been informed that in May, they had only visited 57 of the 1,572 dumps, citing inaccessibility due to the monsoon. In these 57 dumps, too, the survey had detected a little over 442 MT, while the district administration in May assessed 141 MT. That means between March and May, over 300 MT is already likely to have gone missing. The district administration said that they will move ahead in September-October during the dry season, by which time more may go missing,” Justice Katakey told The Indian Express. East Jaintia Hills DC Shivansh Awasthi said that both the remoteness of the locations and the lack of manpower have been challenges in the physical verification process. “We had already given a general order for the district that no one is allowed to move or ship any coal from these locations. Most of these coordinates are in dense jungle areas, which are not motorable during the rainy season. There are also a large number of locations, and the inspections have to be done by the mining department, which is represented by the divisional mining officer. If this is to be done by one person, it will take many years, so we have requested additional staff from the mining department. With more hands, the inspections will resume from the dry season,” he said. He said that additionally, his office has received several representations from people claiming that their coal, which had already been inventoried by the state government, features in the quantity detected by the survey. The initial survey was carried out by a private drone survey and mapping firm. “There also has to be a separate drone survey to verify these claims,” he said.
