Beneath the surface, death and despair in illegal Saurashtra mines
Villagers said that while there has been a reduction in the operation of these illegal mines over the past two months, this was more a function of the monsoon.
On July 16, Khakhratal village in Surendranagar in Gujarat was in mourning. Thirty-seven-year-old Devsinbhai Rojara had entered a small cubbyhole of a mine, as he did every day, to earn his daily wage. It was pouring, the monsoon was raging, the pockmarked ground was unstable. The illegal mine collapsed, and while two others managed to make it out alive, Rojara was dead.
Gujarat government records show that 13 labourers have died working in illegal mines in Surendranagar district this year. (HT Photo)
The pattern that followed was all too familiar. It was in existence for several decades in plain sight,
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.
