Five more bodies of workers who were trapped inside an illegal ‘rat-hole’ coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district have been recovered, 44 days after the structure was flooded, trapping nine. 

Water gushed into the 310-foot deep 3 Kilo Coal Quarry in Dima Hasao district’s Umrangso on January 6 and several teams, including Navy divers, had been deployed to rescue the trapped labourers. The bodies of four of the labourers had been pulled out earlier and the Assam government said all of the trapped workers are now accounted for. 

The body of one of the workers was recovered on January 8 and three other bodies were found three days later. 

Compensation of Rs 10 lakh each has been paid by the state government to the families of the four miners whose bodies were recovered earlier and Rs 6 lakh each was given to the families of the others. The Assam government had announced that each family would be paid a total of Rs 10 lakh each. 

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had earlier said that the mine was abandoned 12 years ago. A judicial inquiry has been ordered into the incident. 

Apart from the depth of the ‘rat-hole’ mine, another aspect that was making locating the labourers difficult was that the main shaft led to four small tunnels, each of which branched out, creating a large network. There was no blueprint available for the rescue teams to refer to.