Guwahati:

As rescuers race against time to save eight trapped workers from a flooded mine in Assam, a two-month-old baby waits for his father to return home safely.

Lijan Magar, 27, spoke to his wife Junu Pradhan just before he went inside the ‘rat hole’ on what seemed like another day for him and several others working at the site. She has not heard from him since.

‘Rat hole’ mining is a dangerous and illegal method in which narrow tunnels are dug leading to deep pits to extract coal, compromising the safety of the workers.

At least eight miners remain trapped in the coal quarry in the Dima Hasao district while the body of a ninth labourer was found by the rescuers two days back.

Read: 3 Days, 8 Trapped Workers, 1 Body: Here’s What’s Hampering Assam Mine Rescue

Their anxious families are now waiting to hear back as the rescue operations entered the fifth day with deep divers from the Armed Forces and disaster response teams working their way inside the mine.

NDTV visited the shanty where Mr Magar’s family lives – where his wife is worried about their child as the fate of the family’s sole breadwinner hangs in balance.

“He spoke to me around 1 pm before going down the rat hole. We don’t know anything else. What will happen to us and our two-month-old child,” Ms Pradhan said.

Junu Pradhan’s father Krishna Pradhan, who was also a labourer in the rat hole mines, is waiting to hear about his son-in-law without any sleep and food.

“I have also worked in coal mines, but now they have dug very deep, so this has happened. My daughter has a child. What will happen to them? The government should do something about it, find him out,” Mr Krishna told NDTV.

Read: “Lay Down, Water Took Me To Safety”: Survivor Of Flooded Assam Mine

He lamented that no one from the administration came to meet the families of the labourers despite top officials and ministers visiting the accident site.

“Several families are waiting here, but neither have we been allowed to go and meet ministers and top officials nor has the government provided any assistance. They did not even come to console us,” Mr Krishna added.

The rescue operation has entered Day 5 since the labourers got trapped in the Kalamati coal mine near Umrango last Monday.

Despite efforts being made on a war footing and the involvement of multiple agencies, murky water inside the flooded mine has posed a challenge to the rescuers. The water level remains constant at 30 metres in the 90-metre-deep mine, making visibility and manoeuvrability difficult for the rescuers.

The hopes now hinge on a heavy-pressure pump flown in from Maharashtra, which can pump out 500 gallons per minute. It is likely to be pressed into service by another day, but time seems to be running out for the trapped workers who haven’t seen the sunlight in over 100 hours.

Dima Hasao:

Several teams from various central and state organisations and all three arms of the Indian Armed Forces – the Army, Navy and Air Force – are involved in some way in the operation to rescue the labourers who have been trapped in a flooded mine in Assam since Monday. Three days on, however, eight labourers are still inside the ‘rat-hole’ mine and the body of the ninth has been recovered. 

So, what’s hindering the rescue effort? Here’s what experts had to say:

The water that gushed into the 3 Kilo Coal Quarry in the Dima Hasao district’s Umrangso, rescuers said, is now acidic and murky because it has mixed with coal. This has made visibility and manoeuvrability very difficult even for the team from the Navy, which includes clearance divers trained in deep-depth diving and recovery operations. The divers from the rescue teams, they said, had to risk their lives to pull out the body that they did on Wednesday. 

The murky water, an official said, is making it difficult even to use remote-operated vehicles.

The mine is 310 feet deep and several pumps have been deployed to get the water out. On Wednesday, an expert team from the Western Coalfields Limited, considered among the best for such rescue operations, was also flown in with a huge submersible pump.

“A five-member team was flown to the accident site in a C-130 Hercules plane on January 8. The team is equipped with a massive submersible pump that can pump out 500 gallons of water per minute at a height of 150 metres, complex cable network, starters and other equipment to help in the rescue operations,” Western Coalfields said in a statement. 

Despite all this, the water level in the main shaft is still at nearly 100 feet, making the rescue operation more complicated. 

Another aspect that is making locating the labourers difficult is that the 310-foot deep main shaft leads to four small tunnels in the ‘rat-hole’ mine, each of which branches out, creating a large network. There is no blueprint available for the rescue teams to refer to.

Speaking to NDTV on Wednesday, a worker at the mine, Jalaluddin, had said that the height of some of the tunnels is barely three feet. 

“There is no room to even stand, and we have to bend and mine for coal. Even when sitting, the roof is just 4-5 inches above our heads,” he said.

Harmeet Singh, Special Director General Of Police, said, “There are channels which are pouring water back into the tunnel. The Navy divers are looking into the tunnels but, as of now, they have not spotted anything.”