- Meghalaya Chief Minister has said that the State government will appeal to the Supreme Court to stop the operations to retrieve the bodies of miners. 15 miners have been trapped in an illegal rat hole mine located at Ksan near the Lytein River in East Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya since December 13 2018.
- In January 2019, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre and Meghalaya government to continue multi-agency operation to rescue the miners. So far only two bodies have been retrieved.
- Rat Hole Mining is mining procedure which involve digging of very small tunnel of only 3-4 feet high for extracting coal. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had banned rat hole mining in 2014. The ban was on grounds of the practice being unscientific and unsafe for workers.
- However, the orders of the Tribunal has been repeatedly violated and the State Government has failed to check illegal mining effectively.
