GUWAHATI/SHILLONG/JOWAI: Air pocket. That’s the only hope for the 13 miners trapped in a coal mine at Ksan in Nongkhlieh Elaka of East Jaintia Hills District since Thursday morning when water flooded it.
All efforts to rescue them by teams of the NDRF and SDRF with help of assorted gadgets and deep divers have so far failed as the water inside continued to maintain its level despite near non-stop pumping since Friday morning.
Santosh Kumar, assistant commandant, NDRF, 1st Battalion, whose 72 personnel are on the job, told The Shillong Times on Sunday they were still hopeful of miners surviving. “We are hopeful. If there is any air pocket inside, they might survive. But nothing can be assumed now,” he said.
Besides the NDRF, there are 20 SDRF personnel engaged in the rescue operation. Singh said the miners might be stranded inside lateral tunnels branching out to more than 200 feet.
“Our divers have not been able to go beyond 30 feet inside the main tunnel which goes down vertically and is filled with water up to 80 feet or more. The pressure of still water poses grave risk to our divers to go beyond 30 feet. However, we have used improvised equipment, including Sonar (Sound Navigation and Ranging), to detect the miners, and can say that none of the miners are trapped inside the main channel but might be stranded in lateral tunnels branching out to a length of more than 200 feet,” he said.
The NDRF officer also said the operations were rendered complicated by the fact that only a “negligible” amount of water in the main tunnel could be pumped out over the past three days.
“It is difficult to know where or how deep the miners are trapped inside as there are several branches (primary, secondary and tertiary) of these lateral tunnels. So our primary task has been to bring the water level down. As of now, two water pumps are engaged even as only a negligible amount of water has been pumped out of the mine. Three more water pumps are on way to the site,” Kumar said.
According to unofficial information, more than 50 mines are interconnected in and around the mine where the rescue operation is currently going on.
“These mines have been declared abandoned (given the National Green Tribunal ban on rat hole mining). The owner who was arrested yesterday had illegally opened the mine,” he said.
An SDRF official at the spot said, “It is very complex case and we are trying our best to rescue the victims. Once the water level reaches 30 feet we will dive into the pit and rescue the victims”. A caving expert, Giant Thappa, who also visited the site on Sunday, said in such cases chances of survival were bleak.
Meanwhile, Rajabala MLA Dr. Ajad Zaman, who visited the site of the mishap on Sunday,
said of the trapped miners 7 were from his constituency.
“I am deeply concerned over the tragedy…one of them is my relative”, he said.
Zaman, who was accompanied by the Superintendent of Police, Sylvester Nongtnger, and Deputy Commissioner, FM Dopth, also interacted with NDRF personnel, local people and relatives of the victims assuring them he will do all to help them.
He said he would meet Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Monday. Sangma and some other ministers are likely to visit the site tomorrow.
Dr. Ajad also expressed concern over the continuing illegal coal mining despite accidents and the attack on social activists Agnes Kharshiing and her colleage Amita Sangma.
“I saw fresh coal on the roadside while travelling from Khliehriat to the mining site,” Ajad said.
Mining policy
The Hill State People’s Democratic Party on Sunday called for a mining policy.
Speaking to reporters, president of HSPDP, KP Pangniang, said people have right over their land but mining has to be carried out scientifically.
“We want the government to come up with a mining plan/mining policy to prevent injuries to people and further harm to the environment,” he said.
General secretary and MLA of the party, Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar said, “We don’t support illegal mining, but we also feel for those who eke out a living from such illegal practices as they are left with no option but to go ahead with it even if it is illegal.”
AIR POCKET SURVIVAL
The armchair science of air pocket survival came into its own in 2013, when a bunch of physicists got together online to try to figure out what size an air bubble would have to be to sustain life indefinitely. Humans need about 10 cubic metres of air per day and for every 10 metres below the surface of the water,that number decreases. Hundred feet below the surface, for instance, the average human only needs about two cubic metres of air per day. To survive 100 feet underwater for three days, then, you’d need about six cubic metres of air—or a bubble about the size of a small dumpster.