An Assam-based environmentalist has flagged Meghalaya-like rat-hole coal mines running along the state’s border with Arunachal Pradesh, and advised the government to save the eco-sensitive coal belt by upgrading five reserve forests in the region to wildlife sanctuaries. Read this also ​Disturbing regularity: Meghalaya’s rat-hole mines on Monday (February 16, 2026) In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma through Golaghat district commissioner Parag Kumar Kakati, green activist Apurba Ballav Goswami said poaching and large-scale coal mining are serious threats to the reserve forests around 231. 65 sq km.

Dehing-Patkai National Park is spread across Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts. A rainforest, this park is often called the ‘Amazon of the East’.

Rare flora and fauna He said that five reserved forests under Jagun range of Digboi forest division – Tinokpani, Tipong, Tirap, Saleki and Makumpani – should be declared wildlife sanctuaries to conserve the rare species of flora and fauna there. Mr Goswami wrote, “As illegal coal mining continues in the Jagun, Lekhapani and Margherita forest ranges, these reserved forests will be destroyed in the coming days due to poaching and mining.

I hope the Chief Minister will set an example by upgrading these reserved forests to sanctuaries. ” Environmental activists in eastern Assam are campaigning against the “coal mafia” that is “destroying the biodiversity” of the Patkai mountain range, of which the Dehing-Patkai National Park is a part. The range extends into Myanmar along Assam’s border with Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

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

This comes in the backdrop of an explosion at an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya on February 5 that killed 30 miners. A judicial inquiry commission has been constituted by the Meghalaya government to investigate this tragic incident. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned rat-hole mining in April 2014, but large-scale mining activities continue in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills, where more than 22,000 rat-hole mines are open.