After 48 hours of search operations, there has been no trace of three coal miners who got trapped inside a rat hole mine in Pataki hills in Tinsukia town of Assam, officials said on Tuesday.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are engaged in the rescue operations.
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On Sunday, three coal miners identified as Dawa Sherpa, a native of Nepal, and two workers from Meghalaya — John and Fenaal — got trapped when the rat hole mine caved in due to a landslide.
Tinsukia District Commissioner Swapneel Paul told local media, “The three coal miners are still missing. One team each from the NDRF and SDRF, and local rescue workers are trying to locate the missing miners. Excavators are being used to dig the rubbles to locate the miners.”
This is the second such incident in the last two years. In September 2022, six coal miners were buried alive in one such illegal rat hole mine.
Such tragedy has struck various states of the northeast where unscientific mining has led to the death of several workers.
The National Green Tribunal had in 2014 banned the rat hole mining in the region.
Local organizations claim despite the ban, coal is being extracted from different parts of the region, putting the lives of the mine labourers at highest risk.
In neighbouring Meghalaya, there have also been numerous incidences of labourers getting trapped inside the rat hole mine and embracing deaths. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had recently advocated for resuming coal mining in a scientific manner. He had said coal mining would resume in the state with the help of a proper scientific process after the Lok Sabha polls.
