Guwahati: A massive rescue operation involving the Army, Navy, Assam Rifles, NDRF, and SDRF is underway in Assam’s hilly Dima Hasao district to save 11 miners trapped in a flooded rat-hole coal mine since Monday morning.
The incident occurred around 7 a.m. at the Assam Coal Quarry in the 3 Kilo area of Umrangso. Flooding was triggered by the suspected opening of an underground water channel.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, despite being occupied with the Advantage Assam 2.0 roadshow in Mumbai on Monday and New Delhi on Tuesday, has been closely monitoring the rescue efforts. He revealed that approximately 100 feet of water remains inside the mine.
On social media, Sarma shared the names of nine of the trapped workers, which include Ganga Bahadur Shreth (38) from Nepal’s Udayapur district and Sanjit Sarkar (35) from Jalpaiguri, West Bengal. The remaining workers are from Assam.
The mine is a box-cut rat-hole mine, where workers descend through a rectangular shaft, typically 200-400 feet deep, and excavate coal through narrow horizontal tunnels barely large enough for a person.
Initial attempts by rescuers to wade through the flooded mine yielded shoes and sandals but no sign of the workers. Sarma stated, “Rescuers believe the miners may be inside the horizontal rat holes. Dewatering the mine is now the only viable option, which will commence tonight. The sooner we dewater, the sooner we can rescue the workers.”
Water pumps from ONGC are currently in use, and Coal India Limited is set to join the operations on Wednesday with additional pumping equipment. Sarma has also sought assistance from Union Coal Minister G. Kishan Reddy.
An FIR has been filed at the Umrangso police station under Sections 3(5)/105 BNS and Section 21(1) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957. One individual, Punish Nunisa, has been arrested in connection with the incident.
“Prima facie, it appears to be an illegal mine,” Sarma stated. He noted that Dima Hasao, governed by an autonomous council under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, limits the Assam government’s administrative oversight. “We’ve asked the police to investigate the circumstances under which mining permission was granted,” he added.
By late evening, Navy deep divers arrived at the site, joining earlier relief efforts by Indian Army teams. Defence PRO Lt. Col. M. Rawat confirmed that specialist divers, an Engineers Task Force, medical teams, and support personnel from the Army and Assam Rifles are actively engaged in the rescue operation.
