Miners trapped in Indian 'rat-hole' pit for more than three weeks
At least 15 workers became stuck in the flooded mine in Meghalaya after they descended into it on 13 December.
Friday 4 January 2019 13:30, UK
An Indian rescue team is struggling to reach a group of at least 15 miners who are trapped in an illegal "rat-hole" coal mine.
Rescuers are struggling to pump out water from the 370ft (113m)-deep pit where the workers have been stranded for more than three weeks.
Their relatives said this week they had lost hope that the miners were still alive.
The slow progress in the efforts in the northeastern state of Meghalaya, India, is in striking contrast to the dramatic rescue of 12 Thai boys who were stuck in a flooded cave in July 2018.
While the drama in Chiang Rai province attracted international media coverage, the trapped miners in India are getting very little attention even within the country itself.
India's Supreme Court this week said the workers "should have been rescued by now. We are not satisfied with the action taken by state government."
It added: "For people who are trapped, every second counts."
The Meghalaya mine became flooded after the workers descended into it on 13 December.
Santosh Kumar Singh, an assistant commandant with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), said: "We are continuously engaged in our efforts but the terrain and conditions out here are extremely difficult."
Navy divers and NDRF personnel have not been able to reach the trapped miners.
Rescuers are now placing their hopes on a huge pump from state miner Coal India Ltd that is being installed on a concrete platform near the mine.
The Supreme Court has ordered the federal government and Meghalaya to file a report by Monday on the rescue operation.
The court was told on Thursday that nearly 86 people had been working on the rescue effort.
Meghalaya produced $4bn worth of coal a year at its peak, or about a tenth of India's total production.
Rat-hole mines - where workers crawl into narrow shafts on bamboo ladders to extract coal - killed thousands of workers in Meghalaya before India's environmental court banned the practice in early 2014.
Many of the pits continued operation in spite of the ban.