An Evaluation of the human health and agricultural impacts of informal coal mining in Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya

Many tribal communities especially the poor rural households in the underdeveloped and developing countries depend directly on endowed natural resources for their cash livelihoods. The Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya is a unique region comprising of aboriginal tribes with a matrilineal society is also a major coal producing area. The present paper attempts to study the artisanal mine workers as they do not hesitate to do work even under adverse climatic or working conditions which are largely operated in remote interior areas. This paper also focused on mining of coal in the region where land is used primarily for agricultural cultivation. Method of household surveys was employed in the study. A total of 180 households were surveyed following a simple random sampling method and where ever possible a visit to the coal quarries was made which was based on the larger number of coal workers at the mining sites. Chi square was employed as the statistical technique for the present study. It was observed that with the starting of mining operation occupational diseases or accidents of coal workers and their family members has been ignored due to the stigma of illegality. Agricultural production has decreased over the years due to scarcity of agricultural labourer around mining region with 52.2% of the local households have focussed on coal activities. Coal mining work in Jaintia Hills is an additional source of income to the rural population and migrants or the so-called socio-economically marginalised groups.