Meghalaya’s coal country turns to tourism: the Jaintia transition

A decade after a Supreme Court order ended most rat-hole coal mining in the Jaintia Hills, the district is rewriting its economy: waterfalls, sacred groves and village homestays now employ more people than the pits did.

The transition is uneven — some villages still wait for roads and water — but the direction is set.

‘We mined the earth and it turned against us,’ one homestay owner said. ‘Now we show the earth, and it pays us back.’