Three more bodies were recovered from the flooded coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district on Saturday morning, five days after at least nine miners were trapped inside. So far, four bodies have been retrieved, while the fate of the remaining five miners remains grim. Rescue efforts continue at the Umrangso coal mine, though hopes of finding survivors are fading.
During a joint operation by the Army and the National Disaster Response Force, the body of one miner was recovered at 7:36 am on Saturday. The deceased was identified as 27-year-old Lijen Magar, a resident of Umrangso. A second body was retrieved later, but its identity has yet to be confirmed.
Earlier, the body of Ganga Bahadur Sreshto was recovered on Tuesday morning. However, rescue operations faced setbacks as the water level inside the flooded rathole mine remained high despite continuous dewatering efforts.
The incident site is near Assam’s border with Meghalaya, a region that witnessed one of its worst mining disasters in 2018 when 15 workers lost their lives after being trapped in a flooded rat-hole mine in East Jaintia Hills.
On January 6, 2025, a sudden flood in an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district trapped at least ten miners. The unexpected deluge caused tunnel collapses within the mine, located in the Umrangso area, about 250 km from Guwahati.
According to witnesses, around 30-35 workers managed to escape, while approximately 15-16 miners remained trapped inside the flooded mine.
