Rescue Mission: 41 Tunnel Workers Rescued by India's 'Rat-Hole' Miners

A group of workers, including Munna Qureshi, has been praised for their heroic efforts in rescuing 41 workers trapped in a tunnel in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. The workers had been trapped for over 16 days after a landslide caused the tunnel to cave in. Qureshi and his team manually cleared the debris, working for under 18 hours to free the trapped workers. Qureshi, described as a "rat-hole" miner, entered the tunnel with his team and cleared the last stretch of debris using basic tools. The "rat-hole" mining technique involves excavating narrow pits in the ground to extract coal, and while it was banned in 2014, it continues illegally. The rescue operation faced various challenges, including a broken drilling machine inside the tunnel and the entanglement of the machine's blades in steel debris. Ultimately, manual excavation was used to clear the remaining debris and complete the rescue. The manual excavators, who are untrained and often come from impoverished backgrounds, have been hailed as brave for their dangerous work.