The great tunnel escape: A remarkable story played out inside while rescue teams toiled away outside
Silkyara tunnel, a remarkable story of grit and gumption was playing out inside. The story was about how the trapped workers battled the elements to actively contribute to the rescue efforts being mounted from outside.
According to various accounts of the events, the workers who went 17 days without sufficient food and fought irregular sleep and bouts of anxiety, played a critical role in their evacuation, ToI reported on November 29.
The report details how the trapped workers helped in the deployment of oxygen pipes and set up safety points while rescuers were drilling from three different directions.
Themselves tunnel workers, they already had the necessary tools, but they also showed determination and discipline in ample measure, never coming up short in any task they were directed to do by the rescuers.
«Over the 17 days of confinement, they adapted, re-composed themselves, and collaborated for the greater good», Shivani Azad of ToI wrote.
They also strictly adhered to the guidance being given by the medical team. It was commendable how the workers maintained a calm demeanour and «displayed the highest order of discipline», the report quoted Dr Rohit Gondwal, who oversaw the mental counselling of the trapped from outside the tunnel, as saying.
Accordinng to Dr Gondwal, a most remarkable aspect was the unity among the trapped workers.
«Interestingly, none of the 41 workers crumbled under the circumstances or refused to contribute to work. None of them fought among themselves or had even the smallest tiff during these all these days,» he told ToI.
The fact that they never lost their composure played a critical part in the successful rescue as all instructions given from outside were executed to perfection, the
