On Sunday, three ladies in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, were buried alive when soil sank around them as they were going outside to relieve themselves since their homes lacked bathrooms. Two other women who had been with her attempted to assist but were also buried after one of the women got trapped in the subsidence first.
The victims, Parla Devi, Thandhi Devi, and Mandava Devi, resided in the unstable, old underground workings of the Dhobi Kulhi region of the Gondudih colliery, which is also prone to fire and subsidence. Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), a division of Coal India Limited, runs the Gondudih Khas Kusunda Colliery.
The women had went outside to relieve themselves when a massive landslip with a loud noise occurred at Hilltop High-rise outsourcing company next to Gondudih colliery in Dhanbad, according to locals. They added that they attempted to save the women but were unsuccessful.
Locals claim that despite being immediately notified, police and mine rescue crews from the BCCL did not arrive until hours later. The locals, who were outraged by the situation, accused BCCL of incompetence and said that the catastrophe occurred because residents had not been properly rehabilitated from the regions that were prone to subsidence.
As rescue crews work to remove the three dead, a sizable number of police and CISF personnel are on the scene. The rescue effort is ongoing, according to Dhanbad Circle Officer Prashant Kumar Layak, and after the corpses are recovered, the procedure of compensating the family members will begin.
