After an extended break owing to the monsoon, miners restarted operations for the season at the ill-fated coal mine in Dima Hasao district of Assam on January 6, but hours later, tragedy befell at least nine of them who got trapped inside the inundated mine. After weeks of waiting for work while the monsoon water was being drained out, mine workers were eager to go down the well-shaped mine to extract coal.
An average rat-hole mine is around 200 to 250-feet long, with a height of just 2-3 feet and width of 8-10 feet, and workers have to kneel and crawl to dig for coal with their hand-held tools. But the assurance of earning ₹1,000- ₹2,000 per day depending on the amount of coal extracted lures many to the depths of these illegal rat-hole mines despite risks to lives.
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“Since it was the first day of work, my legs and hands started aching after around 2 hours of work, and I was planning on coming out early. That’s when we heard shouting of workers from another rat-hole about water entering the mine,” Barman, a resident of Kokrajhar in the northeastern state, said.
By the time he managed to come out of the rat-hole and reach the pit of the main well, the water level had reached around 2 feet. As the walkie-talkie of the supervisor inside the pit fell into the water, the workers could not call for help to those outside. With water levels fast-rising and one of the two trolleys at the bottom filled with coal and the lock of the other not working, workers started clinging on to the chains that held the trolleys, the 39-year-old miner said.
{{/usCountry}}By the time he managed to come out of the rat-hole and reach the pit of the main well, the water level had reached around 2 feet. As the walkie-talkie of the supervisor inside the pit fell into the water, the workers could not call for help to those outside. With water levels fast-rising and one of the two trolleys at the bottom filled with coal and the lock of the other not working, workers started clinging on to the chains that held the trolleys, the 39-year-old miner said.
{{/usCountry}}“When those at the top realised what was happening, they started pulling the chain with around 15 of us clinging to it. But there was a sudden jerk and all of us fell back into the water. Two workers managed to cling to the chain and they were pulled up. After 10-15 minutes, a broken trolley was sent down and around 20-25 of us came up in 3-4 batches,” Barman said.
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By that time, around 30 minutes had elapsed since the water first started gushing in the pit, leaving others stuck. Barman, who had gulped around 3 litres of water, was unconscious for around half-an-hour and was rushed to a nearby hospital.
Having worked in similar rat-hole mines in Meghalaya, Barman is aware of the risks involved every time he enters the coal pit. But the lure of making around ₹2,000 a day, which is nearly four times of what he would earn as a daily wage labourer, keeps drawing him and others like him to the dark depths.
“There’s risk in every work. I might die while driving a truck or crossing a road. But I’ve got a second life after this mishap and I will never do mining work in my life,” he said.
While the 39-year-old survived, his roommate Sanjit Sarkar (24) from West Bengal was not as lucky. Sarkar is one of at least eight workers who are still trapped inside in the well-shaped mine for the last four days. On Wednesday, Sarkar’s father, who had no idea that his son was working in a coal mine in Assam, arrived at the spot.
“We had no information about our son. No one was answering his phone since Monday. Next morning, a caller informed Sanjit’s wife that he is missing and trapped inside the mine. That’s when I knew that he was in Assam and rushed here,” his father Krishnapada Sarkar said. “It’s been four days since he entered the well. I think there’s no chance of seeing him alive. We only hope that his body is found.”
Junu Pradhan (21) hopes that her husband Lijan Magar will return home to her and their two-month-old son Arav.
“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. My husband doesn’t know how to swim. I just hope the rescue process gets over quickly and he is found,” Pradhan said, fighting tears.
Zalaluddin (28), a resident of Dalgaon in Darrang district of Assam, was late for work on Monday. While three of his roommates who reached the mine on time are among those trapped in the inundated well.
“I decided to leave late for work. But around 6.30 am I heard a lot of commotion from those who were at the top of the mine. That’s when I realised what had happened. I have worked in rat-hole mines for nine years in Meghalaya but never encountered such a disaster. I hope my roommates are found alive, if not, at least their bodies are retrieved,” he said