GUWAHATI: Teams from the Army, Navy, Assam Rifles, NDRF, and SDRF were deployed Tuesday to rescue 11 miners trapped in a flooded "rat hole" coal mine in Assam's hilly Dima Hasao district since Monday. The flooding occurred due to an underground water channel breach at Assam Coal Quarry in 3 Kilo area of Umrangso. Efforts to rescue the trapped miners have been challenging, with about 100ft of water inside the mine.
"Rescuers first attempted to move through the water and found a few shoes, sandals but no miners. They are of the opinion that the workers could be inside the horizontal rat holes, and so dewatering is the only option now," CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
To aid the rescue, water pumps from ONGC are being used, and Coal India will join the efforts Wednesday with their pumps. Defence PRO Lt Col M Rawat said specialist divers, medical teams, and support staff from the Army and Assam Rifles have joined the operation. Nine of the trapped miners have been identified - one each are from Nepal and Bengal, while rest are from across Assam.
The mine is a box-cutting rat-hole mine, where workers descend through a small rectangular opening, typically 200 to 400-ft deep, and dig horizontal holes to extract coal.
"Prima facie, it appears to be an illegal mine," Sarma wrote on X. An investigation into the accident is underway, with an FIR registered at Umrangso police station. A person named Punish Nunisa has been arrested.
Opposition urged Assam govt to expedite rescue operations and probe legality of the mine. Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said on X: "Thorough and mandatory safety audits of mines should be conducted promptly, and operators who fail to adequately safeguard workers should face stringent penalties."
Assam Jatiya Parishad president Lurinjyoti Gogoi called for investigation into legitimacy of coal mining in Dima Hasao.
Responding to the concerns, Sarma said: "Dima Hasao is an autonomous council and Assam govt has limitations in its administration. Under what circumstance the mining permission was given we do not know yet. We have asked police to investigate."
(Inputs from Mukut Das)