Assam environmental activist flags rat-hole coal mining along Arunachal border

An Assam-based environmentalist has flagged Meghalaya-like rat-hole coal mines operating along the State’s border with Arunachal Pradesh, advising the government to save the eco-sensitive coal belt by upgrading five reserved forests in the area to wildlife sanctuaries.

In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, submitted via Golaghat District Commissioner Parag Kumar Kakati on Monday (February 16, 2026), green activist Apurba Ballav Goswami said poaching and rampant coal mining pose a grave threat to the reserve forests near the 231.65 sq. km. Dehing-Patkai National Park straddling Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts. A rainforest, this park is often referred to as the ‘Amazon of the East’.

Rare flora and fauna

He said five reserved forests — Tinkopani, Tipong, Tirap, Saleki, and Makumpani — under the Jagun range of Digboi forest division should be declared as wildlife sanctuaries for the conservation of rare species of flora and fauna there.

“As illegal coal mining continues in Jagun, Lekhapani, and Margherita forest ranges, these reserved forests will be lost to poaching and mining in the coming days. I hope that the Chief Minister will set an example by upgrading these reserved forests to sanctuaries,” Mr. Goswami wrote.

Environmental activists in eastern Assam have been campaigning against the “coal mafia”, which has been “destroying the biodiversity” of the Patkai mountain range, of which the Dehing-Patkai National Park is a part. The range, along Assam’s border with Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, extends to Myanmar.

Activists say there are more than 200 rat-hole and open-cast coal mines in Tipong Colliery area of the Patkai Mountains. Many of these are illegal.

This comes in the backdrop of a blast in an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya that killed 30 miners on February 5. A judicial inquiry commission has been constituted by the Meghalaya government to investigate the tragic incident.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned rat-hole mining in April 2014, but large-scale mining activities have continued in East Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya, which has more than 22,000 rat-hole mine openings.