3 Days, 8 Trapped Workers, 1 Body: Here’s What’s Hampering Assam Mine Rescue

Dima Hasao:

Several teams from various central and state organisations and all three arms of the Indian Armed Forces – the Army, Navy and Air Force – are involved in some way in the operation to rescue the labourers who have been trapped in a flooded mine in Assam since Monday. Three days on, however, eight labourers are still inside the ‘rat-hole’ mine and the body of the ninth has been recovered. 

So, what’s hindering the rescue effort? Here’s what experts had to say:

The water that gushed into the 3 Kilo Coal Quarry in the Dima Hasao district’s Umrangso, rescuers said, is now acidic and murky because it has been mixed with coal. This has made visibility and manoeuvrability very difficult even for the team from the Navy, which includes clearance divers trained in deep-depth diving and recovery operations. The divers from the rescue teams, they said, had to risk their lives to pull out the body that they did on Wednesday.