What is rat mining? How a banned practice turned the tide of Uttarkashi tunnel rescue operations
Silkyara tunnel for the 41 trapped workers to be rescued. Ambulances, garlands, hospital beds, have been readied for the trapped workers, for when they are brought out. Rescue workers on Tuesday drilled through the 60-metre stretch of rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel were expected to enter the steel chute pushed into the drilled passage over the past several days and then bring out the workers one-by-one. Going by the practised drill, each worker will lie down on a wheeled stretcher that would be pulled by rescue workers outside using ropes. This was expected to take about two or three hours.
After several delays owing to the breaking down of the auger machine from US, the last leg of the rescue mission was completed by ‘rat miners’, who successful completed the drilling process, removing all debris for the pipelines to be laid and the trapped workers to leave the collapsed tunnel. Rat-hole mining is a method of manual drilling, which is carried out by skilled workers, most common in Meghalaya. Narrow pits are dug into the ground, usually just wide enough for one person to fit into.
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 holes using a rope and bamboo ladders. This method is usually used to extract coals, 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. There is one another type of rat mining. In this, a rectangular opening is made, varying from 10 to 100 sqm, and through that a vertical pit is dug, 100 to
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