41 trapped workers rescued after 17 days
After 17 days trapped behind 70 metres of concrete rubble, 41 men were finally rescued on Tuesday night from inside a Himalayan road tunnel. The men had been working on a 2.8 mile-long tunnel in the northern state of Uttarakhand – part of a major government project to connect Hindu pilgrimage sites – when a landslide on 12 November trapped them inside. Rescue workers were able to supply food, water and oxygen to the men through a small pipe, but efforts to pull them out were repeatedly delayed by machinery breakdowns and falling debris. One idea included drilling vertically from the top of the mountain. But in the end “rathole miners” digging by hand cleared a path through the debris and a pipe was put through the gap, with workers pulled out one by one on a stretcher and greeted with garlands and joy. Most of the men were low-wage workers from India’s poorer states; family members told the NYT that they were paid about $250 a month.