Assam rat-hole mine tragedy: Dying for black gold
Rajib Barman, 39, had heard that the job of a rat-hole miner was hazardous, but he chose to do it because he had a debt of ₹60,000 to pay off. A resident of Sitlabazar village in western Assam’s Kokrajhar district, Barman decided to work at the Kalamati mine in the Umrangso area of Dima Hasao district via a middleman. He hoped to bring home ₹90,000 by working in the mine for two months at about ₹1,500 per day — more than thrice the usual wage in the rural parts of Assam. This translated into earning ₹90-100 per kilogramme of coal extracted at an average of 15 cartloads of the fossil fuel stripped off the mine.On January 6, 2025, Barman descended into the dark pit for the first day of mining. “The sardar (supervisor of miners) had told us the previous night that we could start working as th...