This accident occurred on January 6 at 7 a.m. The workers found themselves trapped inside the mine due to a sudden filling of water.
The body of one of the nine workers trapped in a 300-feet deep coal mine at Umrangso in Assam’s Dima Hasao district has been pulled out.
8 are still blocked. Now, Air Force planes and helicopters are also joining the rescue effort. The operation was stopped Tuesday evening. Rescue work resumed in the morning. The NDRF and SDRF teams are also providing assistance. A task force of engineers along with divers and medical teams from the Indian Army and the Assam Rifles are also present.
The accident took place on January 6, while workers were extracting coal from the mine. The army was deployed to rescue the workers. According to some reports, it is a rat miner’s mine. It is filled with water up to 100 feet, which is discharged using two motors. Police arrested mine owner Puneesh Nunisa.
5 photos of the rescue operation…
The body of one of 9 workers trapped in a mine in Assam has been removed.
This mine is approximately 300 feet deep. It takes about 7 hours to reach here from Haflong district headquarters.
Divers were sent to the mine for rescue using a cart.
Divers were sent inside the water-filled mine using a crane.
Army soldiers set up a temporary tent near the incident site. All the emergency equipment is present there.
Navy divers prepare to dive into a mine.
Air Force C-130 aircraft were also deployed to assist in the rescue.
An eyewitness said – suddenly the water came, I didn’t have a chance to get out
SP Mayank Jha of Dima Hasao district said there was a possibility that many workers could be trapped in the mine. According to eyewitnesses, water suddenly fell, which prevented workers from exiting the mine. Rescue operations were launched with emergency response teams, local officials and mining experts. Workers trapped in the mine are wanted.
Names of workers stuck in Umrangso coal mine
Ganga Bahadur Shreth, Rampur (Dummana-2 Bhejpur), PS Thoksila, district: Udaipur, NepalHussain Ali, Bagribari, Thana Shyampur, district: Darrang, AssamJakir Hussain, 4 No. Sialmari Khuti, Thana Dalgaon, district: Darrang, AssamSarpa Barman, Khalisnimari, Thana Gosaigaon, district: Kokrajhar, Assam Mustafa Shaikh, Bagribari, PS Thilapara, Batashipur, Panbari Post Office, District: Sonitpur, Assam
15 rat hole miners were also killed in 2018
A similar accident took place in East Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya in 2018. Where 15 workers were trapped and died in the coal mine. On December 13, 20 miners entered a 370-foot-deep mine, from which 5 workers exited before filling it with water. 15 workers could not be saved.
What is rathole mining?
Rat means rat, hole means hole, and exploit means dig. It is clear that you have to enter the hole and dig like a rat. In this case, the digging starts from the mountain side with a thin hole and after making a post, it is slowly drilled with a small hand drill. Debris is removed manually.
A process called rat hole mining is commonly used in coal mines. Rat hole mining takes place in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and North East, but rat hole mining is a very dangerous job and hence has been banned many times.
NGT had banned rat mining in 2014
Rat mining was invented by workers working in coal mines. The National Green Tribunal i.e. NGT had banned it in 2014. Experts had termed it an unscientific method. However, the extraction of rats is not prohibited in special circumstances, for example during rescue operations.
18-year-old girl dies after falling into well in Bhuj: she was trapped at a depth of 500 feet
Indira, an 18-year-old girl who fell into a 540-feet-deep borewell in Kandhrai village of Bhuj taluka in Gujarat on Monday morning, was pulled out on Tuesday, but could not be saved. Doctors declared him dead after investigation. The body was sent for autopsy. …