GUWAHATI
Three miners, one of them from Bhojpur in Nepal, were feared dead inside an illegal rat-hole coal mine after a landslide struck the Patkai Hills in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district around midnight on May 25.
The mishap happened in the Tikak colliery between Bor Golai and Namdang in the Ledo area.
“We received a report that three workers are missing from the area. Necessary action is being taken,” Tinsukia District Commissioner Swapnil Paul said.
Rescue efforts
Eyewitnesses said that four people were working inside the mine at the time of the incident. While three were inside a narrow tunnel, extracting coal, the fourth was engaged in taking the coal out of the mine.
The missing workers were identified as Dawa Sherpa from Nepal, and John and Phinal from Meghalaya.
Police and officials of the North Eastern Coalfields, who reached the spot, said that efforts were underway to rescue the trapped miners if they were alive, or to retrieve their bodies.
Hazardous mines
At least half a dozen people have died in the hazardous mines that run along Assam’s border with Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. This is the second mishap in this coal belt since January 25, when six miners died in a methane gas explosion inside a mine at Ruchayan village in Nagaland’s Wokha district.
The mines in this belt are a combination of open-cast and rat holes, depending on the terrain.
