India: Group of Miners Trapped Inside 'Rat Hole' Coal Mine for Fifth Day
June 4, 2021 - Search and rescue efforts continue for a group of miners trapped for five days in a coal mine in the Indian state of Meghalaya.
Eyewitnesses said the illegal coal mine was quickly flooded after a sudden dynamite explosion in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills District on May 30, NDTV reports.
The heavy rainfall has hindered rescue efforts inside the coal mine, known as a "rat hole" because of the narrow crevices through which coal is extracted. According to the BBC, "rat hole" mining was banned in 2014 but is still widely practiced across the East Jaintia Hills area.
In this photo taken on December 30, 2018, Indian Navy divers go down in the mine with a pulley during rescue operations after 15 miners were trapped by flooding in an illegal coal mine in Ksan village in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district of India. At least five miners remain trapped in a rat-hole coal mine that collapsed five days ago.
Photo: AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The district's Deputy Commissioner, E. Kharmalki, told The Hindu that local police needed to request help from the National Disaster Response Force.
"We have requisitioned a crane the miners were using for the rescue personnel to descend into the pit," Kharmalki said. "We have also placed pumps to drain out the water from the mine, but the weather is playing spoilsport."
Meghalayan authorities have ordered an inquiry into the mining accident.
"We have constituted a magisterial inquiry into the matter and the report is awaited," Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui told NDTV. "Search and rescue operation teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), fire brigade and police are presently stationed at the coal mine which is located under Umpleng AD Camp in Sutnga."
"However," he added, "they cannot do anything but wait since the water level is high due to heavy rain. They will take a call on what needs to be done and what is the next step."
Rymbui told The Hindu that the mine was abandoned. The former owner of the mine was taken into police custody for questioning, but tested positive for COVID-19 before he could be interrogated. Authorities do not know if he still owns the mine or sold it to someone else.
Jagpal Singh Dhanoa, the Superintendent of Police of the East Jaintia Hill district, blamed the Sordar (the manager of laborers) Nizam Ali for the incident, telling The Indian Express that Ali allegedly "did nothing to rescue the trapped laborers" and instead "threatened the survivors with dire consequences and chased them away from the mining site."
Dhanoa said there are at least six or seven survivors and at least five people stuck in the mine. Three of the trapped miners have been identified as Abdul Karim, Abdul Kalam and Shyamcharan Debbarma.
In January, six people from Assam's Karimganj district were killed while working inside a coal mine in East Jaintia Hills. There was an investigation into the alleged crane accident to determine if there was an attempt to mine coal illegally at the abandoned location, the India Express reports. In 2018, 15 miners died inside the rat hole mines.
The exact number of these types of mines is unknown. The state government has come under attack from opposition leaders about the regulation of the mines.
Former Minister and Congress MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh told The Hindu that "the people need to know who profits from" the illegal mines and "how the laborers managed to come to Meghalaya despite the COVID-19 restrictions."