The bodies of five miners trapped in a flooded rat-hole coal mine in India’s northeastern Assam state were recovered on Wednesday, concluding a 44-day operation.
Nine miners were trapped when the mine in Umrangso area of Dima Hasao district flooded on 6 January.
Rescue efforts faced significant delays due to persistent water inflow from interconnected rat-hole tunnels. At one point, pumps were extracting five lakh litres of water per hour, but the 310ft central pit of the mine and narrow tunnels made access difficult, local officials said.
In the initial phase of the operation, four bodies were recovered within the first week. One was found two days after the rescue mission began and three more on 11 January.
The remaining five bodies remained trapped deep inside the tunnels, requiring weeks of sustained dewatering before retrieval became possible.
“The bodies were trapped in the rat-holes. Today, after dewatering efforts, water had been cleared from the base of the mine and men could go down and look for the bodies,” Riki Phukan, an official at the district disaster management authority, said on Wednesday. “After the bodies were found by National Disaster Response Force and Army teams, the operation was finally closed by around 5 pm.”
Coal mine accident at Umrangshu 3-Kilo, Dima Hasao, Assam: In the tireless efforts of NDRF Team and worth leadership of the unit commandant, NDRF Team successfully extricated remaining all the 05 bodies. #coalmine @NDRFHQ @CMOfficeAssam @PIB_Guwahati @ANI @PTI_News pic.twitter.com/eDy9Mz1HHP
— @01NDRF (@01NDRF) February 19, 2025
Only after water levels were sufficiently reduced did rescue personnel manage to enter the depths of the mine and recover the last of the victims, concluding the 44-day operation.
State authorities launched a criminal investigation into the incident, setting up a Special Investigation Team and a one-man inquiry commission led by former Gauhati High Court judge Justice Anima Hazarika to assign responsibility.
The Assam government has pledged Rs 10 lakh (£9,154) in financial assistance to the families of each of the victims.
The tragedy has reignited concerns about illegal rat-hole mining, leading to a crackdown on such operations in Dima Hasao and Tinsukia districts.
“Today, the dewatering of the Umrangso mines was completed to a level where retrieval operations could be launched. The mortal remains of the remaining 5 miners have been recovered and brought up from the mine shaft. The process to identify the remains has been initiated,” state chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on X.
The victims have been identified as Ganga Bahadur Shresth, 38, Hussain Ali, 30, Jakir Hussain, 38, Sarpa Barman, 46, Mustafa Seikh, 44, Khusi Mohan Rai, 57, Sanjit Sarkar, 35, Lijan Magar, 26, and Sarat Goyary, 37.
Shresth hailed from Nepal while Sarkar was from West Bengal. The remaining seven victims came from various regions of Assam.
