Brief by Shorts91 Newsdesk / 09:32am on 28 Nov 2023,Tuesday India
A banned hazardous mining method finally made the breakthrough in rescuing the trapped 41 workers in the collapsed Uttarakhand tunnel after high-tech machines failed. 'Rat-hole' mining, involving manual digging of narrow pits, began to manually clear the tunnel rubble and save 41 trapped workers after 17 days. It allowed quick progress as diggers with hand tools burrowed tunnels on all fours like rats. But rat-hole mining's dangers saw India prohibit it in 2014 - though it remains rampantly used in Meghalaya's thin, economics-defying coal seams. In this process of mining, cramped shafts suit small framed miners, including illegally hired children. Despite accidents killing rat-hole workers, the outlawed technique became the last resort to manually inch through debris and reach the men deprived of natural light since November 12.
