Silkyara Tunnel Rescuers Are National Heroes, Not ‘Rat-Miners’

In a major relief, all 41 workers trapped underground in a tunnel in Uttarakhand's Silkyara were rescued on Tuesday. They had been trapped in the tunnel for almost three weeks.

The workers have been evacuated by the rescuers following a gruelling operation. The breakthrough came after ‘rat-miners’ were brought in on Tuesday evening and manually dug into the last stretch.

Most of the rat-miners involved in the operation are from Dalit, Muslim or other backward communities. Their names are Feroz and Munna Quereshi, Rashid, Irshad, Naseem, Monu, Naseer, Ankur, Jatin, Saurabh, Waqeel Hasan, and Devender.

The first few trapped workers were brought out by modified stretchers after the NDRF (National Disaster Relief Force) personnel went in and did a primary evaluation of their condition.

Doctors said all the workers are in good health. Besides the temporary hospital, elaborate preparations have been made for the rescue. After various blockage in the rescue operation that left everyone stressed, the success at the operation has been a huge sigh of relief.

Since the success of the operation, there has been massive applause for the men who took out the workers from the tunnel. Social media is full of praise for the team, who according to sources on the ground, said that they are not “rat miners, but used the techniques used by them to take out the workers”.

It is to be noted that rat-mining is banned in India.

What is rat-mining? Rat-hole mining is a dangerous and controversial method used to extract thin seams of coal. The name comes from its resemblance to rats digging tunnels into the ground

The practice is most common in Meghalaya. The practice was prevalent in Meghalaya where pits were dug and miners went down the narrow tunnels that were usually wide enough for just one person.

The term “rat hole" refers to the narrow pits dug into the ground, typically just large enough for one person to descend and extract coal.

After digging the pits, the miner drops down into the tunnels using a rope and bamboo ladders. This method is usually used to extract coal, and is considered extremely hazardous. It is illegal in many countries due to increasing cases of miners dying from asphyxiation, lack of oxygen and hunger.

On December 13, 2018, a total of 15 miners who were involved in illegal coal mining in East Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya got trapped inside after a breach caused water from the nearby Lytein River to enter the underground mine.

On January 17, 33 days after the men went missing, a team of the Indian Navy spotted the body of one of them at a depth of 210 feet.

The next day, one more body was spotted at a depth of 280 feet. And those were the only two bodies that were ever recovered from the mishap site.

The news came in the wake of illegal mining as, in 2014 the National Green Tribunal had banned the practice in Meghalaya owing to the rise in deaths and other tragedies.

“It is also informed that there are umpteen number of cases where by virtue of rat-hole mining, during the rainy season, water flooded into the mining areas resulting in death of many numbers of individuals including employees/workers”, the NGT observed.

However, the men who had come from Delhi worked with private contractors as labourers and were part of the rescue mission.

On November 27, 12 brave men were given the task of digging the hole in a desperate attempt to take out the workers from the tunnel.

This came close on the heels of a massive setback to the rescue operation. The auger joint of a drilling machine being used to clear the debris broke inside rescue pipes, thus blocking the passage.

While the rat-miners who successfully rescued the trapped workers are not only heroes but a symbol of hard work, they still live under harsh conditions. Most of the people who go for manual work come from financially weaker backgrounds.

With issues like caste and religious discrimination a prevalent issue in the country, basic necessities like education and money are not easy.

“You have to understand that people choose this work only because they have no other choice. Even these men, while they are not ‘rat miners’ but mostly lack of basic education, is the reason why they are forced to do such things,” Asif, an Uttarakhand based journalist, who has been covering the situation on ground, told The Citizen.

The men, who have become the heroes of the country, also refused to take any kind of money for their efforts, averring that they did this for their homeland.

“No one could believe that the men would be able to dig 11 to 12 metres on the day of the rescue. These men are a symbol of this country and they need to be applauded,” Asif said.

The tunnel was part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious, Rs. 150 crore Char Dham pilgrimage program which aims to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites.

The project has however received criticism from environmentalists who say the heavy construction could seriously damage the Himalayan region. The region is already witnessing the impact of climate change with heavy landslides almost every year during monsoon season.

In 2020, a panel of experts, in a report, told the Supreme Court that construction of the highways will “lead to further landslides and soil erosion in an already sensitive environment.”

The Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna2 is a program of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways3, which was announced on 23 December 2016.

The Project aims to widen the roads of approximately 900 kms of national highways, in order to ensure safer, smoother and faster traffic movement. As the name suggests, these highways connect the holy shrines of Uttarakhand – Yamunotri (NH-94/134 up to Janki Chatti), Gangotri (NH-108), Kedarnath (NH-109, up to Sonprayag), Badrinath (NH-58) and the Tanakpur-Pithoragarh stretch of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra route (NH-125).

According to the report, the Project was conceptualized with the aim of improving accessibility to these shrines by widening the existing roads, making travel safer, smoother and faster. The Project seeks to widen the existing highways into a double lane with paved shoulder configuration with 16 bypasses, realignments and tunnels, 15 flyovers, 101 small bridges and 3516 culverts.

The applicants, however, in their plea mentioned that the project will lead to deforestation, excavation of hills and dumping of muck, which will lead to further landslides and soil erosion, in an already sensitive environment.

However, in its order dated September 26 2018, the NGT observed that the bypasses and realignments to be made to the national highways, which cumulatively fall under the Project, have been considered as stand-alone projects.

The length of each of these projects is less than 100 kms and thus, the NGT held that the projects did not require an EIA approval or Environment Clearance under the EIA Notification.

The report however said due to the fragile ecosystem within which the Project was to be developed, the NGT directed the constitution of an ‘Oversight Committee’ to monitor the environmental safeguards for the execution of the Project.

Meanwhile, the authorities are investigating the cause of the tunnel collapse and are likely to examine the role of drilling on the mountain.