Corporate Citizen claps and salutes

a bunch of unheralded ‘rat miners’ who turned out to be messiahs to the 41 workers trapped in an under-construction tunnel for 17 days in Uttarakhand’s Silkyara mountains

The heroic rescue highlights a nationally banned occupation that remains prevalent in some mines and construction sites. It finally brings glory to a motley crew of unsung heroes, who have until now, never been acknowledged.

A landslide at the Silkyara-Dandalgaon tunnel on the Brahmkhal-Yamunotri highway in Uttarkashi trapped 41 construction workers, triggering a coordinated rescue operation under the aegis of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL). It tested faith in scientific infrastructural manoeuvres, gathering all acumen and machinery to drill, dig, and reach the trapped workers. A round of applause also goes to the international tunneling expert Arnold Dix, who on November 25th alerted that the auger machine used for drilling had crashed, which prompted them to seek alternative rescue methods. The US-built auger machine had drilled through 46.8mm of the 57m-thick wall of debris for 7+ days before its blades snapped. When rescuers resumed drilling into the hill above the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel, they had to penetrate 86 meters to reach the tunnel. When the equipment had drilled approximately 19.5 meters, two Border Roads Organisation (BRO) officials were injured in a road accident near the tunnel site. Authorities had no recourse but to parachute in 12 rat-hole miners, deploying the unscientific ‘rat-hole’ technique used for coal extraction but banned since 2014. Amidst the glitches and bottlenecks, the 41 ill-fated workers found solace in the rat miners, who salvaged their lives.

The band of twelve heroes - Munna Qureshi, Wakeel Hassan, Monu Kumar, Feroze Qureshi, Nasir Khan, Irshad Ansari, Rashid Ansari, Naseem Malik, Devender Kumar, Ankur, Jatin and Saurabh, worked in shifts of three and carved through the rock. It was one of the most rudimentary processes as one person would drill through the rock, the second collected the debris, and the third shoved it out of the pipe through a wheeled trolley. They laboured non-stop for almost 24 hours before they could reach the trapped victims. They were holed into a narrow pipe as they manually ploughed through the remaining 10-12 metres of rubble, enabling the trapped victims to emerge safely.

Munna Qureshi said that they had the confidence to remove the debris within 24 hours. “Our team made a commitment and we stuck by what we said,” said Munna. “I removed the last rock. I could see them. Then I went to the other side. They hugged us, lifted us. And, thanked us for taking us out. I can’t express my happiness. I have done it for my country. The respect they (trapped workers) have given us, I can’t forget my whole life,” he said. “When we saw the trapped workers inside the tunnel, we hugged them like they were family,” said Nasir. "They gave me almonds," said another miner. The miners stayed with the victims for half an hour before the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) fetched the trapped workers for further treatment.

Munna’s brother, Feroze, said, “Where machines can’t go, our hands can. Our work involves laying underground sewer and water pipelines where machines can’t be used — like railway lines, road crossings, and narrow lanes. We use hand-held tools like hoes to dig through and trolleys to dispose of the rubble. However, Society doesn’t give our work much respect.” While an almost shunned brigade of miners accomplished the ardous task, in a hopeless situation, the entire mission was a coordinated effort by multiple agencies. Procedures were made to supply oxygen, electricity and eatables to the trapped labourers through air-compressed pipes with help from the NDRF, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), BRO, the executing agency NHIDCL and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Husnain, a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member, said, “Rat-hole mining may be illegal but their (rat-miner’s) talent and experience has helped us to rescue the workers.”

As appreciation pours in globally for the rat-mining heroes, Sagarika Ghose, journalist, columnist, and author sums up, “The roll of honour of rescuers at #UttarakhandTunnelRescue: DG NDRF Atul Karwal, Lt Gen. Harpal Singh, Syed Ata Hasnain of NDMA, Mahmood Ahmed, managing director NHIDCL, Cyriac Joseph of Squadrone and rat hole miners from India’s poorest sections, among them Wakeel Khan and Munna Quraishi. Politicians are intent on dividing us, but it is when India rises above divisive identities, that India can move even a mountain.”