GUWAHATI: Nine miners continued to remain trapped inside a coal mine near Umrangso in Assam’s Dima Hasao hill district even as deep divers from the Indian Navy joined the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and army in the rescue mission.
“The Navy team is now spearheading the rescue efforts,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X sharing the updates.
The state government had requisitioned Navy deep divers from Visakhapatnam to assist in the rescue operation.
Special DGP Harmeet Singh told media at the site that divers from army’s special forces, NDRF and SDRF had recced the entire area and shared their findings with the Navy divers.
“The Navy team came along with deep diving equipment. There are tunnels inside the mine and more equipment will be required to go there,” Singh said.
Earlier in the day, a statement issued by the state government said, “The bodies are yet to be recovered. Dewatering has been stopped for the time being.”
The mine with a 20 ft radius is about 300 ft deep and the water level inside it has risen to more than 100 ft. It is yet to be ascertained what caused the flooding.
Sarma said prima facie, it appeared to be an illegal mine. Punish Nunisa was arrested in connection with a case registered by the police under Sections 3(5)/105 BNS, read with Section 21(1) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.
The CM released the names of the trapped miners on Monday night. They are Ganga Bahadur Shreth (38) from Nepal, Sanjit Sarkar (35) from West Bengal, Hussain Ali (30), Jakir Hussain (38), Sarpa Barman (46), Mustafa Seikh (44), Khusi Mohan Rai (57), Lijan Magar (26) and Sarat Goyary (37), all from Assam.
Coal mine tragedies are common in the Northeast.
In January last year, a fire in a coal mine in Nagaland's Wokha district had left six workers dead. Four others were also injured. In May the same year, a mine in Assam’s Tinsukia district caved in, killing three miners. Then in September 2022, three coal miners got killed by inhaling suspected toxic gas in the same district.
The biggest tragedy in recent memories was the death of 15 miners in a flooded rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya’s Ksan area on December 13, 2018.