Three more bodies were recovered from a flooded coal mine in Assam on Saturday, taking the toll to four, as rescuers continued to search for the workers missing in the 300-feet quarry since Monday, officials aware of the matter said.
Officials said that at least five more workers were trapped in the mine but it wasn’t clear if that was the final figure, as the illegal operation kept no records. It was also unclear if any of the workers were alive as the multi-agency rescue effort involving personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), army, navy, and local police entered its sixth day.
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“Three bodies of the trapped workers were found on Saturday. A drone camera used to check the mine detected the bodies, following which divers from NDRF, army and navy went down and retrieved them,” said GD Tripathi, CEO of Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).
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The three deceased, all residents of Assam, were identified as Ligen Magar (27) from Dima Hasao district, Khushi Mohan Rai (57) from Kokrajhar district, and Sarat Goyary (37) from Sonitpur district. On Wednesday, authorities recovered the body of 38-year-old Nepal resident Ganga Bahadur Shrestha.
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“I talked to him over phone around 1.30am on Monday before he went down the mine. I informed him that our son was unwell. He had assured me that he would finish work soon and return home,” Magar’s wife, Junu Pradhan, earlier said.
Tripathi said the three bodies were bloated as they were underwater for close to a week, and as a result, floated closer to the surface, which made it easier to retrieve them.
Five other workers, Hussain Ali (30), Zakir Hussain (38), Mustafa Sheikh (44), all from Darrang district of Assam, Sarpa Barman (46) from Kokrajhar district in the state, and Sanjit Sarkar (35), from Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, remained missing inside the mine.
Local residents have said around 40 people entered the mine at around 9am on Monday. The workers likely struck a source of water that flooded the mine, officials familiar with the matter have said, adding that while most of the workers managed to escape, between nine and 15 were stuck.
The ongoing rescue work was suspended on Thursday after authorities appeared unable to reduce the estimated 100 feet of water in the mine, with officials suggesting that an underground aquifer was constantly inundating the main pit and the tunnels that branched out. The rescuers made headway on Friday after they succeeded in pumping out water from the flooded quarry.
“We have been dewatering the mine continuously, and the water level has gone down by 18.1 metres (around 59 feet) till Saturday evening. There’s still around 11.9 metres (nearly 39 feet) of water left,” said a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official, on condition of anonymity.
A high-intensity pump provided by Coal India Limited, which can drain about 2,250 litres of water per minute, was set to be pressed into the dewatering process from Saturday night and could help drain out the mine by Sunday afternoon, according to authorities.
Officials have maintained that it was imperative to first drain the mine to save the workers, who might be trapped behind debris in a web of underground tunnels, known colloquially as outlawed rat hole mines, as the divers were finding it difficult to search for them in the mucky waters with zero visibility.
“Along with the dewatering of the coal mine where the mishap had taken place, we had simultaneously started extracting excess water from six nearby mines to ensure that water from those doesn’t enter the one where the workers are trapped. The collective efforts have resulted in a significant drop in water level,” said Tripathi.
The mine is in a far-flung district of Assam dotted with many such crude operations, where functions are unregulated and labourers often work without safety equipment. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said the mine was earlier run by the state’s mines and minerals department but was abandoned 12 years ago, calling Monday’s mine operation illegal. The police have so far arrested Punish Nunisa, who was operating the mine, and Hanan Laskar, the supervisor of the workers, in the case.
On Saturday, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said illegal mining operations continue unabated in the state, adding that he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an SIT inquiry in Dima Hasao.
“Illegal mining continues unchecked in Assam, fuelled by weak law enforcement and local complicity. I have written to the Prime Minister urging an urgent SIT probe to investigate this tragedy. Those responsible for this tragedy must be held accountable,” Gogoi posted on X.
The presence of multiple rat hole mines connected to the main quarry has hampered the rescue efforts in Dima Hasao. Rat hole mines, named because their tunnels are just big enough for workers to get through, were once used extensively in northeastern states. They consisted of narrow pits in the ground, usually meant for one person to go down. The coal was usually placed in boxes that were hoisted to the surface with pulleys. In some cases, miners carried coal in baskets up on wooden slats flanking the walls of the mines. They were banned in 2014 because of the large number of fatalities and the damage caused to the environment but still continue to be used in violation of rules.
“Broader issues of safety, corruption, and environmental harm need to be addressed too. The families of the victims deserve justice, and we must ensure that such incidents are prevented in the future,” the Congress’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha added.