Meghalaya's Coal Mines Are Used For Disposing Bodies Too

The dark depths of the mines, where few would dare to search, were turned into graves by criminals, says activist

- Rahul Karmakar

All bodies in Meghalaya’s killer coalmines do not belong to miners, activists in the hill State said.

Thousands of active and abandoned rat­hole mines have for years been used by murderers to dump the body of their victims. Many across Meghalaya’s coal belts have accidentally fallen to their deaths too.

Most of the bodies deep inside the pits have been forgotten, buried under coal and rocks or – like the one detected by an underwater Navy robot in an illegal mine at Ksan in the State’s East Jaintia Hills (EJH) district – get decomposed due to high content of sulphur that is converted into acid after reaction with water.