Several teams from various central and state organisations and all three arms of the Indian Armed Forces – the Army, Navy and Air Force – are involved in some way in the operation to rescue the labourers who have been trapped in a flooded mine in Assam since Monday. Three days on, however, eight labourers are still inside the ‘rat-hole’ mine and the body of the ninth has been recovered.
So, what’s hindering the rescue effort? Here’s what experts had to say:
The water that gushed into the 3 Kilo Coal Quarry in the Dima Hasao district’s Umrangso, rescuers said, is now acidic and murky because it has mixed with coal. This has made visibility and manoeuvrability very difficult even for the team from the Navy, which includes clearance divers trained in deep-depth diving and recovery operations. The divers from the rescue teams, they said, had to risk their lives to pull out the body that they did on Wednesday.
The murky water, an official said, is making it difficult even to use remote-operated vehicles.
The mine is 310 feet deep and several pumps have been deployed to get the water out. On Wednesday, an expert team from the Western Coalfields Limited, considered among the best for such rescue operations, was also flown in with a huge submersible pump.
“A five-member team was flown to the accident site in a C-130 Hercules plane on January 8. The team is equipped with a massive submersible pump that can pump out 500 gallons of water per minute at a height of 150 metres, complex cable network, starters and other equipment to help in the rescue operations,” Western Coalfields said in a statement.
Despite all this, the water level in the main shaft is still at nearly 100 feet, making the rescue operation more complicated.
Another aspect that is making locating the labourers difficult is that the 310-foot deep main shaft leads to four small tunnels in the ‘rat-hole’ mine, each of which branches out, creating a large network. There is no blueprint available for the rescue teams to refer to.
Speaking to NDTV on Wednesday, a worker at the mine, Jalaluddin, had said that the height of some of the tunnels is barely three feet.
“There is no room to even stand, and we have to bend and mine for coal. Even when sitting, the roof is just 4-5 inches above our heads,” he said.
Harmeet Singh, Special Director General Of Police, said, “There are channels which are pouring water back into the tunnel. The Navy divers are looking into the tunnels but, as of now, they have not spotted anything.”