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The miners became trapped on Monday morning in the Umrangso area
in Dimapur Hasao district, about 125 miles (200 kilometers)
south of the state capital, Guwahati.
The workers are “feared trapped 300 feet below the ground after
water gushed in from a nearby unused mine. We are mobilizing
resources to rescue them,” said Kaushik Rai, a local government
minister who is monitoring the rescue efforts.
Army soldiers and a national disaster management team at the
site used ropes and cranes to assist the ongoing operation.
Rescuers found three helmets, some slippers and a few other
items, Rai said. "The divers have been able to dive into 35 or
40 feet of water inside the mine. The water level now is
estimated at 100 feet,” he said.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on the social
media platform X that the mine appeared to be illegal and that
police had arrested one person as they investigate the case.
Workers at the site said over a dozen miners had been trapped
inside the mine, which has minimum safety measures, and some
managed to escape as water from a nearby unused mine began
filling the mine.
In India’s east and northeast, workers extract coal in hazardous
conditions in small “rat hole” mines that are narrow pits in the
ground, usually meant for one person to go down, and are common
in hilly areas. The coal is usually placed in boxes that are
hoisted to the surface with pulleys. In some cases, miners carry
coal in baskets up on wooden slats flanking the walls of the
mines.
Accidents in illegal mines are frequent and the livelihoods of
those who do such mining depend on the illegal sale of coal. At
least 15 miners were killed after getting trapped in one such
mine in Meghalaya state in 2019.
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