Tunnel rescue ops: ‘Rat miners’ took up the job to clear final stretch

LUCKNOW The rocky terrain of Jhansi in Bundelkhand region has produced a generation of ‘rat-hole miners’ who have expertise in burrowing manually through hard blocks of stones. A team from this part of UP was roped in for manual drilling of the Silkyara tunnel to evacuate the 41 workers trapped inside for 17 days.

After parts of a US-made auger machine, which drilled up to 46.8 metres through the debris got stuck in the rubble on Friday, officials managing the rescue operation opted for the ‘rat-hole’ mining technique. A team of six ‘rat miners’ from Jhansi - equipped with hammers, trowels and shovels - teamed with the Indian Army to rescue workers from the tunnel and managed to cut through the final 12 metres within 24 hours.

Rat-hole mining is a primitive method of extracting coal deposits through narrow and horizontal passages in Meghalaya. The term “rat hole” refers to the narrow pits dug into the ground, typically just large enough for one person to descend into and extract coal. The name comes from its resemblance to rats burrowing through narrow holes.

“Jhansi is located on rocky plateau…it is dominated by rocky reliefs and hard granite underneath. Rock cutters settled in the rural area of the region use traditional method to cut rocks to make wells and ponds. When explosives cannot be used to blast the rocks, miners use their expertise to dig into the rock to make wells,” said Professor SP Singh, a faculty at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Bundelkhand University.

Virendra Singh, who runs a stone quarry in Jhansi, said the rat miners (popularly called ‘khagars in Bundelkhand region) come from various communities including Ahirwar, Kushwaha, Lodhi, Sahariya, Koris and their service is used in quarrying, construction of underpass, wells and ponds.

“They can break 10 quintal rock with hammers and shovels. A company had demanded ₹15 lakh for constructing a passageway using a machine in my village through rocky terrain. But the rat miners constructed the passageway in ₹2.50 lakh,” he said.

“Rock mining is a family profession. Government agencies and contractors hire us to cut rocks in the hard terrain area where machines/explosives are not used. Villagers also hire us to construct wells, install hand pumps and ponds. We also cut rocks to build the base of the houses constructed in the hilly terrain. Rock miners’ service is used in pipe-laying works in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Telangana and Jharkhand,” said Kattan Khagar, a rock miner of Ghisauli village in Jhansi.

The service of rock miners has also been used in the laying of water pipelines for the tap water supply scheme under the Jal Jeevan Mission in the seven districts of Bundelkhand region. An officer of Jal Jeevan Mission, Jhansi, Vijendra Joshi, said rock miners are roped in to cut rocks to lay pipelines at spots where explosives are not used.