Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue

ON 28TH MAY 1965, FRIDAY, AN EXPLOSION OCCURRED IN “DHORI UNDERGROUND COAL MINE” NEAR DHANBAD IN BIHAR. THE RESULTING FIRE ROASTED 268 MINERS ALIVE.ON 27th DECEMBER 1975, SUNDAY. WATER FLOODED THE “CHASNALA UNDERGROUND COAL MINE” NEAR DHANBAD. THE AUTHORITIES WERE UNABLE TO RESCUE A SINGLE MINER RESULTING IN 372 DEATHS. IT WAS A BLACK DAY IN THE HISTORY OF COAL MINING.14 YEARS LATER IN AN EXACTLY SIMILAR INCIDENT ON 12TH NOVEMBER 1989, SUNDAY, A BLAST AT THE WRONG PLACE RESULTED IN FLOODING AT THE UNDERGROUND COAL MINE, “MAHABIR COLLIERY” IN RANIGUNJ.The families of the missing miners are waiting anxiously for any word, however the irony is that in the eyes of British Engineers and Senior officers of Coal India present there, these miners are already dead. No one is ready to believe that they could have survived the breach and the flooding. None except one. JASWANT SINGH GILL, Additional Chief Engineer, and a Rescue Trained Officer from Coal India who has nothing to do with this Coal mine but has arrived to do his bit in the rescue after hearing about the tragedy. Gill is convinced that the miners are alive and wants to start a rescue mission, but the first hurdle he will have to cross is locate the missing miners. The big question is how to find them when they are 350 feet underground in a mine that is spread over of 10 square kilometres, without any means of communication?Using his intelligence and out of the box solutions, Gill locates the missing miners who were presumed dead, BUT now he has to face another challenge, the water is rising and the poisonous Gas is rapidly spreading. If the trapped miners are not rescued in the next 48 hours, they will die.Gill’s Extraordinary effort, his daredevilry and the fact that he didn’t let the pressure regarding his pregnant wife hamper his mission, Gill designed an innovate iron CAPSULE using which he rescued all the trapped 65 miners in a mission that lasted nearly 3 days. Till date, for the families of the rescued miners, Jaswant Singh Gill is a God and they worship his picture and pray for him every day.For his courageous rescue, Mr. Jaswant Singh Gill was honoured with India’s high civilian gallantry award, The Sarvottam Jeevan Rakshak Padak (SJRP) by the President of India himself making him the first living person in Indian history to win this award. Since that day, everyone starts addressing him as “CAPSULE GILL” instead of Jaswant Singh Gill and 16th November is now celebrated as “Rescue Day” by Coal India.