Rat-hole mining

Rat-hole mining or Rat mining is a process of digging employed in North East India to extract coal, where a narrow hole is manually dug by extraction workers. The practice is banned by the National Green Tribunal; however, the techniques are still employed by artisanal mining operations in several parts of India, especially in Meghalaya.

Technique
Rat-Hole Mining technique is a procedure of digging manually wherein the worker involved in extraction can hardly crawl in and out, as a narrow tunnel is dug 3 to 4 feet in depth. This technique is basically of two types:
 * Side cutting method which is generally followed on slopes of hills by navigating through coal seams deposited on the rock layers and visible on the outer surface of rock and generally in darkish brown or black banded.
 * box cutting method which involves digging a round shape or square shape pit with a width of 5 square metre and depth of 400 feet. The method is followed in North Eastern India to extract coal.

Bans
As Rat-Hole Mining involves working in dangerous conditions, causing environmental damage, and causes many accidents involving death and injuries, the technique is criticised and banned in many countries. Rat-Hole Mining is banned in India by National Green Tribunal.

2021 incident near Rymbai
On 21 January 2021 six miners died in an incident in a mineshaft in an area of rat-hole mines in the East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya.

Uttarakhand rescue
In late 2023 rat-hole miners were instrumental in the rescue of 41 workers who were trapped for 17 days after the road tunnel in Uttarakhand that they were digging collapsed.