World Heroic Rescue Missions: After the collapse of a part of the Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, 41 workers are holding their breath for the last one week. Efforts are being made to take all of them out. ‘Rescue operation’ is going on on a large scale and the state government and central agencies are jointly engaged in this operation.
Everyone’s eyes are fixed on their TV screens on this rescue operation. According to news agency PTI, in such a situation, it is necessary to mention the many courageous rescue missions in the country and the world in the past.
Raniganj Coal Mine Rescue Operation of 1989: Before the Uttarkashi Tunnel disaster on November 13, 1989, the rescue operation was widely discussed globally when the coal mine of Mahabir Colliery, Raniganj, West Bengal was submerged and 65 laborers were trapped in it. Although at least 232 miners were trapped in the flood caused by sudden inflow of water in this mine, but 161 people were immediately rescued. Of the remaining trapped people, 6 laborers also lost their lives.
A film named ‘Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue’ was also made.
During this time, a major rescue operation was launched and several teams were formed to rescue the trapped mining workers. This entire incident was also adapted into a film named ‘Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue’ in which actor Akshay Kumar has acted. This story is also very inspiring how the talent and leadership of Mining Engineer Jaswant Gill of Coal India Limited saved the lives of 65 workers who were trapped in the Mahabir Colliery coal mine.
Mining engineer had received the highest civilian bravery award
Mining engineer Jaswant Gill, leading one of the teams, came up with the innovative idea of making a steel capsule about 7 feet high and 22 inches in diameter and making a new borehole to lower the capsule into the mine and take it out of the mine. Finally, after two days of operation, the workers were taken out one by one through this steel capsule. He (Gill) himself went into the capsule to save the trapped people. Gill was awarded the highest civilian gallantry award ‘Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak’ by the then President R Venkataraman in 1991.
2018 Thai cave rescue: After this, the Thailand cave case of June 23, 2018 was very much discussed. The incident occurred when 12 players of the Wild Boars football team and their coach were exploring the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex in northern Thailand. At that time the weather turned bad and due to heavy rains there was severe waterlogging in the tunnels. After this, due to the flood situation, all these players got trapped in this cave. Efforts were made at the global level to safely rescue all these players trapped in the flooded Tham Luang cave. The world saw this rescue operation which shocked everyone.
It was very difficult to find the players trapped in the cave due to rising water.
Reportedly, more than 10 thousand people were involved in this entire rescue operation, including 90 divers from different countries. This entire operation lasted for about two weeks, in which after 8 days, two British divers rescued the boys, aged between 11 to 16, and their coach alive on 10 July. It was becoming very difficult to find and save them amidst the continuously rising water inside the cave.
All of them were made unconscious with ketamine and taken out of the cave one by one. However, the only former Thai Navy SEAL, Saman Kunan, lost his life during this rescue operation. There are many books, documentaries, films about this incident – prominent among which are The Rescue, Thirteen Lives and Against the Elements etc. This was one of the most complex and amazing rescue operations in the world, which was told to the world through all these stories.
Prince’s 2006 borewell accident: A similar disturbing and engineering-challenging borewell incident occurred in 2006. 5 year old innocent Prince had fallen into a 60 feet deep borewell in Halderi village of Kurukshetra district of Haryana. At that time everyone was praying for the safety of the Prince trapped in the borewell. During this time, when the struggle was going on to take it out, after a few hours of strenuous efforts, the rescue team saw another empty borewell of similar depth nearby. After this, 3 feet diameter iron pipe was used to connect both the borewells and after about 50 hours of hard work, the Prince was finally taken out safely.
2010 rescue operation of Chilean miners: The rescue operation of 2010 Chilean miners has also been much talked about in the world. This campaign had shocked the whole world. On August 5, 2010, a San Jose gold and copper mine collapsed, burying 33 workers. Continuous efforts were made to communicate with these people trapped 2000 feet below the surface.
The last rescue team achieved success on August 22 when they succeeded in making a hole below the surface. After this, the work of sending them food, water and medicine could be done. On behalf of the people trapped in the mine, a note in English was sent to the rescue team, which had a Hindi translation: We are 33 people who are fine in the shelter. At the same time, on October 13, 69 days later, in this rescue program broadcast globally, 33 miners were seen being rescued from the tunnel one by one in a capsule painted in the colors of the national flag of Chile.
2002 Quecreek Miners Rescue: The accident at Quecreek Mining Inc. in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States, on July 24, 2002, was also very frightening. This surprised the people of America as well as the world. By carrying out a very difficult and challenging rescue operation, 9 miners trapped in the mine were successfully rescued after 77 hours. All of them could be taken out only through a 22 inch wide iron ring. America had to face this incident just less than a year after the 9/11 Al Qaeda attack.
Also read: 41 lives, 10th day of rescue operation… Foreign experts reached the site, know the complete planning of NDRF.
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