Will never do mining work: Survivor

After an extended break owing to the monsoon, miners restarted operations for the season at the ill-fated coal mine in Dima Hasao district of Assam on January 6, but hours later, tragedy befell at least nine of them who got trapped inside the inundated mine.

- Utpal Parashar

UMRANGSO: After weeks of waiting for work while the monsoon water was being drained out, mine workers were eager to go down the wellshaped mine to extract coal.

An average rat-hole mine is around 200 to 250-feet long, with a height of just 2-3 feet and width of 8-10 feet, and workers have to kneel and crawl to dig for coal with their hand-held tools.

But the assurance of earning 1,000-2,000 per day depending on the amount of coal extracted lures many to the depths of these illegal rat-hole mines despite risks to lives.

"Since it was the first day of work, my legs and hands started aching after around 2 hours of work, and I was planning on coming out early. That's when we heard shouting of workers from another rat-hole about water entering the mine," Barman, a resident of Kokrajhar in the northeastern state, said.