The Indian authorities authorized the use of "mousetrap mining" to save the 41 workers trapped in a tunnel under construction in the north of the Asian country for 17 days, a controversial technique considered illegal by the courts with which Rescue teams managed to open the escape route this Tuesday.
Rescue teams began using this technique yesterday afternoon, after numerous failures with the machinery. Widely used in northeast India to extract coal, the method involves digging narrow pits into the ground in search of deposits of the mineral.
The technique was banned by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2014 as "hazardous to life" and "unscientific" as it caused serious environmental damage. "There are innumerable cases where due to burrow mining, during the rainy season, water flooded the mining areas, resulting in the death of many people, including employees/workers," the NGT observed.
On Tuesday, three six-member teams took turns inside the narrow tunnel to continue excavation manually using the technique, after other methods used in recent days reached a dead end. Through this technique, rescue teams have managed to complete the drilling work to open the escape route, although the authorities also had two other alternative plans, including vertical drilling.
