India: Rescue operations underway as miners trapped in "rat-hole" mine

By Francesca Merlo

In yet another tragic mining incident, rescuers in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam are racing against time to save miners trapped inside a flooded coal mine. The accident has once again cast a spotlight on the dangers faced by workers in illegal and unregulated mining operations.

Rat-hole mines

The disaster took place on Monday when water flooded into the so-called "rat-hole" mine - a narrow and dangerous shaft manually excavated to extract coal. Nine men are trapped underground, and while reports suggest that three of them may have already lost their lives, with rescue teams spotting bodies that they have yet to recover, there is still hope for the others. 

Despite a national ban on rat-hole mining since 2014, these illicit operations persist in Assam and across other northeastern states of India. Economic hardship and lack of employment opportunities often drive local communities to accept whatever job is on offer. Sadly, this is not the first time that such an incident has taken place, underscoring both the desperation of those undergoing the tasks as well as the urgent need for stricter enforcement of laws.

Rescue operations

The Indian Army is present on the scene, providing support to local authorities as they undergo the rescue operation. On Monday evening, Assam’s Director General of Police, GP Singh, announced that authorities were still working to determine the exact number of people trapped. As early reports indicated that over a dozen miners had managed to escape, it is believed that the number of people still trapped underground could be lower than ten.  

Mining tragedies like this are, unfortunately not uncommon. In December 2018, another rat-hole mining disaster in Meghalaya, India, claimed the lives of 15 miners after a mine flooded. Similarly, the collapse of an artisanal gold mine in Sudan last year resulted in over 30 fatalities, while a methane explosion at a coal mine in Turkey in 2022 left dozens of people dead.

In a more positive light, in October 2015, Pope Francis met with a group of Chilean miners who spent more than two months in a collapsed mine in 2010. The attention that the rescue mission received, and its success, highlights just how rare such outcomes are, emphasising once more the importance of imposing strict laws to protect the rights of miners across the world.