The Spirit of Silkyara

WHEN NEW ZEALANDER Edmund Hillary reached the top of Mount Everest in May 1953, along with Tensing Norgay, he gave voice to elation by telling his companions, “Well, we knocked the bastard off.” It was a sentiment that would have appalled Norgay and other Sherpas. For them, and indeed other Western climbers more respectful of the mighty Himalayas, “conquering” the peak was a blasphemy. It was Everest that condescended to allow climbers to ascend it, evoking awe and reverence as Chomolungma or Sagarmatha in Tibetan and Nepali lore. Some 70 years later, Australian tunnel expert Arnold Dix prayed before a makeshift temple dedicated to local deity Baba Baukhnaag days before 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara-Barhot tunnel were finally rescued on November 28. Dix is a man of science but is all too keenly aware of how things can go wrong. “My friends, if you haven’t noticed, I think we have just witnessed a miracle,” Dix told the media before heading to the temple again, this time to offer his thanks.

Asked about local accounts that the tunnel collapse which trapped the workers had followed a temple to Baba Baukh­naag being razed, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami did not brush aside the sugges­tion. The work on the tunnel will restart in time and a proper temple to Baukhnaag will be constructed, he promised. Dhami was in a relieved frame of mind as he stood at the tunnel entrance receiving the men who came out. The chief minister said the operation to rescue the men was difficult and risky and re­quired a lot of skill and patience. When a part of the tunnel first collapsed in the early hours of Diwali on November 12, there was no indication whether there was more to follow. In the course of a complicated opera­tion to drill through some 57 metres of debris, there were moments when rumbles raised fears of more parts of the tunnel coming down, forcing engineers to halt work and wait with bated breath. In the end, a 2km stretch of the tunnel remained intact creating a fragile cocoon of safety for the workers. The final breakthrough by rat miners, who took over when the drilling machine ran into metal meshes and bars, was nothing short of deliverance for the men who spent 17 days in hope and prayer.

The causes of the accident are under investigation. A section of environmentalists and experts have been quick to blame tunnelling and blasting in the Himalayas for the accident. The Char Dham project had faced a vigorous chal­lenge in the Supreme Court before its strategic importance with regard to moving men and materials to the China border, and the fact that much of the road cutting had already taken place saw it being cleared. There is no doubt about the need for caution while constructing roads in the Himalayan regions adversely affected by deforestation. Yet, technology for road construction has also improved and connectivity is not a luxury but a dire necessity for many hilly areas cut off for months during adverse weather. A balance is needed and the Centre’s decision to re­view all ongoing tunnel projects is a step in the right direction. The Centre had already decided in August 2021 that there would be no new hydro projects in the upper reaches of the Ganga, and only seven ongoing ones are to be completed.

The rescue became a national story with TV audi­ences everywhere following each turn in the story. There was a collective gasp of concern when the initial drilling halted after getting through some 20 metres of the debris. Then after a larger American auger machine was airlifted on November 16 by the Indian Air Force’s Hercules C-130 planes and drilling restarted, it looked like things might work out. Meanwhile, the early success in getting a six-inch pipe through, followed by a larger one, was crucial for the well-being of the workers. Emergency food supplies reached the workers while the pipe also carried vital oxygen. As the workers testified after they came out of the tunnel, the sup­ply of fresh oxygen was much needed as the air in the tunnel began to stale. The rescuers worked hard to keep the morale of the workers up, even when the drilling hit a block, assur­ing them that they would not be abandoned.

After the auger machine’s blades got twisted and it became evident that the rescue would be delayed, experts, national and state disaster teams, and on-site engineers decided to start drilling down from the top of the mountain, a distance of 86 metres, to reach the trapped workers. This would take several days and the rescue team took the deci­sion reluctantly as the risks were greater in drilling down towards the tunnel. In fact, as Dix and Indian officials explained, every strategy had risks, and it was difficult to assess just how unstable the tunnel and its immediate surroundings had become.

In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, machinery used to clear the debris triggered a further fall of rocks. Pushing 900mm pipes into the enclosed space was beset with uncertainties and engineers used radars and sensors to carefully plot their way through.

After removing parts of the auger machine from the res­cue pipe—in itself a challenging task—it was finally a dozen “rat hole miners” used to chipping away in small claustro­phobic spaces, who chiselled and cut their way through the last 10-odd metres. These men habituated to descending in small pits or holes to extract minerals, crawled into the rescue pipe, and took turns to make headway and clear accumulated debris. A small camera, mobile chargers, and over time, a greater variety of food and drink kept the spirits of the workers up. It is a testimony to their resilience that the workers are in good health and mentally upbeat despite their taxing ordeal.

The rescue operation has been hailed for its technical expertise and impressive coordination between Central a nd state agencies. The ability to access all the required expertise, whether in the form of experts like Dix or India’s deep-sea drilling agencies, and the swift deployment of IAF’s heavy lift capacity, were a pleasing contrast to botched rescues, indicating an enhanced capacity to carry out complex operations. Top officials and senior ministers like Road Trans­port and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari visited the site but did not impose themselves on engineers and disaster management experts who worked round the clock to ensure that the workers came out of what might well have been a veritable death trap.

Arnold DixBaba Baukh­naagChar Dham projectPushkar Singh DhamiSilkyara-Barhot tunnelUttarakhand tunnel rescue Operation