Assam: Bodies of five workers recovered from Dima Hasao coal mine after 42 days

The bodies of five workers trapped in a 300-foot deep coal mine in the industrial town of Umrangso in Assam’s Dima Hasao district were recovered on Wednesday, 42 days after the labourers got trapped.

Nine workers were trapped in the mine on January 6 after it suddenly flooded with water. Since then, only four bodies had been recovered.

“Today, the dewatering of the Umrangso mines was completed to a level where retrieval operations could be launched,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Wednesday. “The mortal remains of the remaining 5 miners have been recovered and brought up from the mine shaft.”

He added that the process to identify the bodies had been initiated.

Today, the dewatering of the Umrangso mines was completed to a level where retrieval operations could be launched. The mortal remains of the remaining 5 miners have been recovered and brought up from the mine shaft. The process to identify the remains has been initiated.

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 19, 2025

Following the incident, the Assam government had launched a campaign to shut down illegal rat-hole mines in the Tinsukhia and Dima Hasao districts.

Rat-hole mining is an unscientific practice that involves digging narrow tunnels to extract coal where miners need to crawl on hands and feet or lay flat to navigate….

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