At least half a dozen labourers are feared trapped in a flooded coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district.
There is no clarity on how water seeped into the mine but a preliminary police report, citing some locals, said four to six workers have been trapped inside the pit since about 8 a.m. on Monday. The spot is about 30 km from the nearest police station at Umrangso and takes about seven hours to reach from Haflong, the district headquarters.
“The place is very remote and is accessible through a jungle. We received information about the mishap at 2 p.m. Since the place is difficult to reach, we will get the actual picture after reaching the place tomorrow (Tuesday) morning,” Dima Hasao’s District Commissioner, Simanta K. Das said.
He said a State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) team has been readied for the rescue operation while officials of the Assam Mines and Minerals Department, which handles mining matters, have been instructed to assess the situation and find details about the mine’s owner.
“We may engage National Disaster Response Force personnel depending on what the SDRF finds out,” Mr. Das said.
Disasters in coal mines across the northeast, mostly of the hazardous rat-hole kind, are frequent.
In January 2024, a fire in a coal mine in Nagaland’s Wokha district killed six workers and injured four others. In May of that year, three miners were killed in Assam’s Tinsukia district when the mine they were working in caved in.
In September 2022, the suspected inhalation of toxic gas killed three labourers in an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Tinsukia district.
Among the biggest disasters in about a decade was the death of at least 15 miners in a flooded rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya’s Ksan on December 13, 2018.
