What happened
In 2014, India's National Green Tribunal banned traditional rat-hole coal mining in Meghalaya, a state whose primary economy ran on coal dug by hand from narrow underground tunnels. Twelve years on, the ban exists mostly on paper: on February 5, 2026, an explosion at an illegal mine in East Jaintia Hills killed 33 people, the third mine accident in the state that year. The response from the Jaintia Coal Owners, Miners, Suppliers and Workers Association was not a demand to shut down illegal mines, but a hunger strike to lift the ban on legal mining. As the strike hit its 20th day on June 21, the Meghalaya government offered to seek central government relaxations in approximately three months. A parallel government initiative proposed growing medicinal and aromatic plants in mining-affected areas as an alternative livelihood.