An Assam-based environmentalist has raised alarm over rat-hole coal mines similar to those in Meghalaya, operating along Assam's border with Arunachal Pradesh. Apurba Ballav Goswami, in a letter to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, urged the government to protect the eco-sensitive coal belt by upgrading five reserved forests to wildlife sanctuaries. The five reserved forests—Tinkopani, Tipong, Tirap, Saleki, and Makumpani—lie under the Jagun range of the Digboi forest division near the Dehing-Patkai National Park. This park, often called the 'Amazon of the East,' covers 231.65 sq. km in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts and is home to rare flora and fauna. Goswami warned that "As illegal coal mining continues in Jagun, Lekhapani, and Margherita forest ranges, these reserved forests will be lost to poaching and mining in the coming days. I hope that the Chief Minister will set an example by upgrading these reserved forests to sanctuaries." Environmental activists in eastern Assam have long campaigned against the “coal mafia” accused of destroying the biodiversity of the Patkai mountain range along the borders of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. The Patkai range extends into Myanmar. There are more than 200 rat-hole and open-cast coal mines in the Tipong Colliery area of the Patkai Mountains, many operating illegally. This situation follows a tragic recent event when a blast in an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya killed 30 miners on February 5. Meghalaya's government has set up a judicial inquiry commission to investigate the incident. Despite a National Green Tribunal ban on rat-hole mining in April 2014, large-scale mining continues in East Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, which has over 22,000 rat-hole mine openings.