Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
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NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the government to list the steps it plans for the rescue of at least 15 miners trapped in a so-called “rat-hole” coal mine for three weeks in a remote hilly state, warning that “every second counts”.
The workers were ensnared on Dec. 13 when the illegal mine in the northeastern state of Meghalaya was flooded. Rescuers have so far only been able to find three helmets and two axes underground.
The country’s top court wondered why attempts to reach the miners had not yet been successful.
“Tell us by tomorrow, because for people who are trapped, every second counts,” Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri told the federal government, represented by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta.
The Meghalaya government told the court that nearly 86 people were working on the rescue effort since Dec. 14, including employees of state-controlled Coal India Ltd, the world’s biggest miner of the fuel.
Kyrmen Shylla, Meghalaya’s disaster management minister, told Reuters both government and private agencies had been involved in the bid to reach the miners, many of whose family members have given up hope.
Rat-hole mining has killed thousands of workers in Meghalaya, including children, before India’s environmental court banned the practice in early 2014.
At its peak, the state produced coal worth $4 billion a year, or about a tenth of India’s total production.
Despite the ban, many mines continued operatihere, requiring workers, often children, to descend hundreds of feet on bamboo ladders and dig coal out of narrow, horizontal seams.
The unsuccessful rescue bid has drawn criticism of a lack of urgency shown by government agencies, particularly given the remote location of the mine, a journey to which can take more than five hours from the nearest commercial airport in Guwahati.
“Would we have cared more if the miners had not been at the fringes of national consciousness in the northeast?” senior journalist Vir Sanghvi asked on Twitter.
“I have not given up hope, but our response to this crisis shames us as a nation.”
A request for 10 pumps of 100 HP, survey teams to detect seepage and other assistance from state-owned Coal India was made by the district administration in a letter to the state government on December 20, but the corporation received the communication only on December 26.
An Odisha team left on Friday morning in a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force with 20 high-power pumps to assist in rescue operation in Meghalaya for 15 miners trapped for past 15 days.(Photo courtesy Fire Department , Odisha)
A 21-member team of Odisha Fire Services, on board an Indian Air Force plane, has landed in Guwahati on way to Meghalaya with high-powered dewatering pumps to assist local authorities in a fresh attempt to rescue the 15 miners, trapped in a flooded illegal coal mine in Ksan village of East Jaintia Hills district for the last fortnight.
The team has approximately another 200 km to go by road through hilly terrain before they reach the site of accident .
With chances of their rescue becoming bleaker by the day, the Union ministry of home affairs on Thursday sought the help of Odisha Fire Services for sending its team of experienced professionals.
Director general of fire service and commandant general, home guards and director civil defence BK Sharma said the team led by chief fire officer Sukanta Sethi left on Friday morning in a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force with 20 high-power pumps.
“Each of the pumps can dewater 1,600 litres of water a minute and we hope the miners can be rescued. We are one of the few states that is experienced in handling such calamities. We could have gone much earlier, but the request from MHA came yesterday (Thursday),” said Sharma.
Watch:Rescue operations underway for 15 miners trapped in flooded Meghalaya mine
With time running out for the miners, the Odisha team could have left on Thursday evening but could not as the Shillong airport does not have night landing facilities.
This is the first time that the fire services team would test their skills in a coal mine filled with water. The fire services department has taken part in rescue operations in others states in the past as well.
In August this year, a team of 240 fire service personnel from Odisha had helped in the rescue operation of flood-affected people in Kerala. The team not just saved hundreds of people, including patients and disabled, they also rescued domestic animals like cows, goats and pets like dogs.
In 2014 too, the Odisha fire service personnel had earned praise for their commendable job in the relief and rescue operations in Andhra Pradesh during Cyclone Hudhud.
Efforts stepped up
The state government has been criticised for the tardy rescue operation in the Saipung area of the northeastern state due to the festive season. All that the rescue officials in Meghalaya have recovered so far are three helmets.
The efforts to pump out water from the mine stopped on Monday as the available machines were ineffective and stronger ones were needed.
A request for 10 pumps of 100 HP, survey teams to detect seepage and other assistance from state-owned Coal India was made by the district administration in a letter to the state government on December 20, but the corporation received the communication for assistance from Shillong only on December 26.
On Thursday, an assessment team from Kirloskar Pumps (KBL) in Kolkata arrived at the remote site on Thursday evening after a request by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, whose party is in the opposition in Meghalaya.
A Coal India team arrived in Shillong on Thursday and will visit the site on Friday for assessment. JK Borah, general manager, North Eastern Coalfields said “seven pumps have been mobilised by Coal India.” Officials said moving the other equipment to the site of the accident will take another three to four days.
Rescue teams at the site said that a foul smell emanating from the water on Wednesday reported by one of the divers was in all likelihood because of stagnation when the operation was suspended on Christmas Day.
“It has been fourteen days now. The chances of the trapped miners surviving are very slim,” acting additional district magistrate SS Syiemlieh said on Thursday.
The miners have been missing after the illegal coal mine they were digging collapsed on them in the coal-rich East Jaintia Hills, an area where illegal mining is rife and a National Green Tribunal ban on such activities has been in place for four years.
Meghalaya has nearly 640 million tonnes of coal reserves. Mining of coal by hand has been going on in Meghalaya for over 150 years, mostly for local use. Large-scale illegal and indiscriminate mining of the coal by private landowners and the local community started nearly three decades ago.
Most of these mines employ minors, some from neighbouring states and Nepal as well; the miners work many metres underground in unsafe conditions, mining coal with their bare hands.
This isn’t the first accident involving an illegal mine in the state.
In February 2014, four miners were killed when the walls of an illegal mine collapsed in Garo Hills. In December 2013, five miners died when the cable of the contraption which was carrying them down to an illegal mine in Jaintia Hills broke. In July 2012, 15 miners drowned in an illegal mine in Garo Hills when an underground stream flowing near the mine flooded it.
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.
Image copyrightREUTERS
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 