TOI reported that on last Wednesday afternoon 4 persons got trapped in a mine located near the south Tisra pond in their bid to extract coal illegally.

Villagers, however, successfully pulled out 2 of the miners, who have been identified as Suresh Mochi and Lakshman Ravidas around 5 in the evening. The fate of the other 2 trapped miners Panchanan alias Panchu and Manik Mochi is not known.

According to reports, villagers mostly belonging to Mochi Tola of Surunga under the Alakdiha outpost of the Jorapokhar police station in the district have been extracting coal illegally from the said mine for long. The villagers are learnt to have dug up nearly 30 feet deep holes on private lands. After extracting coal, they sell the same to local hard coke industries.

On Wednesday afternoon, when they were extracting coal from one such hole, a huge chunk of unstable earth crust fell on them and 4 of them got trapped inside. A crater measuring about 15x20 feet was created due to the subsidence. Their companions standing on the surface of the earth raised an alarm and hundreds of villagers gathered on the spot to widen the hole. Sources claimed that the trapped persons were alive as they were still shouting for help.

According to villagers, the local officials of the south Tisra colliery of the BCCL were urged to engage heavy earth moving equipment to dig out the area. However, they refused to send vehicles on private land.

Meanwhile, the officer in charge of the Alakdiha outpost, Mr Yogendra Murmu arrived at the spot and the villagers, too, pulled out Mr Suresh Mochi and Mr Lakshman Ravidas from the mine.

Mr Murmu told TOI that villagers are trying to locate the whereabouts of the other 2 persons trapped inside the mine. We have requested the colliery management to provide heavy earth moving equipment to expedite the exercise and save precious lives."

(Sourced from Timesofindia.com)