Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Rescuers have located a second body from the site of a “rat-hole” mining accident in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya, a spokesperson for the country’s navy said on Saturday, two days after recovering the first body.
Fifteen miners were trapped on Dec. 13 when their illegal mine was flooded. A court stipulated ban on unregulated mining in the state in 2014 has not stopped such activities.
Thousands of workers in Meghalaya, including children, have been killed in so-called rat-hole mines, in which miners crawl into narrow shafts on bamboo ladders to dig for low-quality coal.
“Indian navy diving team finds second body 280 feet inside the rat-hole mine,” a navy spokesperson said in a tweet.
There was no immediate indication on when the body will be brought to the surface, said a rescue official, who did not want to be named.
Families and relatives of the trapped miners have given up hope that any of them will be found alive.
At least 21 miners died when a roof collapsed in a coal mine in northern China, officials say.
Sixty-six miners were rescued after the accident on Saturday at the Lijiagou mine near the city of Shenmu in Shaanxi province.
The cause of the collapse is under investigation, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Mining accidents in China are quite common despite efforts to improve safety.
The Lijiagou mine is operated by the Baiji Mining Company, Xinhua said. No further details of the incident were available.
Last October, 21 coal miners were killed when an underground rock fall blocked a shaft in eastern Shandong province.
According to the latest figures from China’s National Coal Mine Safety Administration, there were 375 deaths in coal mines in 2017, a fall of about 28% on the previous year.
In a statement last January, the bureau said the “situation of coal mine safety production is still grim” despite improvements.
The initial rescue operation to help the miners had to be stopped as the pumps were not adequate to flush out large volumes of water. The state government then sough Centre’s help and high-powered pumps and a team was dispatched from Odisha.
An Indian Navy team has reached the mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills where 15 people have been trapped since December 13 but will begin their operations on Sunday morning. (HT Photo)
After delays and hiccups, two teams of rescuers—one comprising divers from Indian Navy and another from the Odisha fire services—reached the flooded coal mine in Meghalaya on Saturday where 15 miners are trapped since December 13.
But except conducting recce at the site located at Khloo Ryngksan in East Jaintia Hills district and attempts to set up the high-powered pumps needed to flush out water nothing much happened during the day. Actual work on the ground will begin early on Sunday morning.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Assistant Commandant Santosh Kumar Singh, who is overseeing operations at the rat hole coal mine. said a three member team of the Indian Navy visited the site.”They did a recce of the spot, spent 30 minutes inside the main pit. They also held a meeting with us and are likely to start operation tomorrow. Now that they are here we will assist them,” he said.
The water levels inside the mine remains unchanged, he said.
A team of Odisha fire and emergency services, who finally reached the spot, tried to install their high-powered pumps. “They may be operational by tomorrow,” Singh said.
“Pumps and other machinery are being installed at the site. Everyone is working overtime with extreme dedication and zeal as our mission is to save lives. That is our top priority,” East Jaiñtia Hills district police chief Silvester Nongtnger told Hindustan Times.
He aid that after all the gear has been installed and put into place on Saturday night, rescue operations will begin on Sunday morning. “We will start right from the first hour itself.”
The initial rescue operation to help the miners started on December 14 once the NDRF and SDRF teams arrived. On December 17, a team of Directorate General of Mine Safety along with Coal India officials arrived and suggested 100 HP submersible pumps be used. The district administration wrote to the state government seeking immediate help from Coal India on December 20. However, it was only on December 26 that Coal India received a request from state government for assistance.
The rescue operation launched by the state government had to be stopped as the pumps were not adequate to flush out large volumes of water. The state government then sough Centre’s help and high-powered pumps and a team was dispatched from Odisha.
The team reached Guwahati on Friday morning around 11:30 am, but due to lack of transport provided by Meghalaya they had to wait till 5:45 pm to start their 220 km journey to the mine.
“Initially we were told that we would be travelling by trucks. Then the plan was changed and it was decided that dumpers would be used to shift the equipment to the accident site,” said Sukant Sethi, Chief Fire Officer (Odisha), who is leading the team.
“By the time we reached a primary school (located 25 km from the mine) where we were supposed to spend the night it was 2 am on Saturday. There was no person from Meghalaya government’s side who helped us with basic needs,” Sethi said.
Despite the problems faced by them, the team was keen to reach the spot soon to help the trapped miners. They finally reached around 1 pm on Saturday
Another aspect of seemingly lukewarm response by the government has emerged. Tata Trusts had offered to lend two pumps which it had airlifted from London to augment rescue efforts during the Kerala floods to Meghalaya but till date, there has been no response from the government.
Efforts to reach Peter W Ingty, additional chief secretary in-charge revenue and disaster management by Hindustan Times proved futile as he did not respond to calls.
GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) – Rescue workers were trying on Friday to reach 13 miners trapped underground in a coal mine in India’s remote northeastern Meghalaya state since the previous day, authorities said.
The mine is an old, illegal so-called rat-hole mine, they said. Rat-hole mines are common in Meghalaya as they are dug by villagers but are very dangerous as the coal is pulled out from narrow, horizontal seams.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said authorities had no information on the condition of the miners.
“We are praying that they come out alive,” he told Reuters by telephone from the state capital Shillong.
A flash flood from a nearby river on Thursday raced through the mine, which is located near a dense forest, said Sylvester Nongtngr, police chief of the East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya.
Nearly all mines in Meghalaya, which borders Bangladesh, use the rat-hole mining method, even though they are not legal and authorities try to crack down on them.
Workers, often children, descend hundreds of feet on bamboo ladders to dig out the coal from small holes, often leading to accidents.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 