Buried beneath a Mountain

The amazing 17-day-long, multi-agency effort to rescue 41 workers trapped inside the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel

- Bhavya Dore

Gabar Singh Negi normally spent Diwali with his wife and children at home in the mountainous north. Last November, on Diwali day, the 52-year-old Uttarakhand local looked forward to finishing work early and heading home to celebrate—light lamps through the house, perform a puja and feast with his family.

First, however, he would have to finish his 12-hour night shift as foreman at the worksite of the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi. Work had begun the previous night at 8 p.m., and would end by 8 a.m.. A few of the men had finished their shift early and headed off to enjoy the festivities. Then, at around 5:30 that morning, an earth-shattering explosion ripped through the air inside the tunnel.

When the chaos subsided, Negi grabbed his wireless handset and asked the operator: “What was that?!”

Some blast, he was told. “But how could it be a blast?” he remembers asking. “We are the ones doing the blasting, and we haven’t done any.”

Perhaps a short circuit, the man replied. But the newly laid lights inside the tunnel were still on.

An old hand, Negi had spent more than two decades on the job, and his instincts screamed that something was terribly wrong. He and a few others climbed into his Bolero and began driving towards the mouth of the tunnel to investigate. But when the soft light of dawn that should have come into view never showed, Negi realized with dismay that he was right. The entrance to the tunnel was completely shut. There was no way out.

Signs of Life

It was 12 November 2023 and the 41 men working inside the Silkyara– Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand found themselves suddenly sundered from the world. The 4.5-km-long, two-lane tunnel, meant to connect some of the state’s most sacred and popular pilgrimmage sites and reduce travel time, had been under construction since 2018. Now a part of the tunnel’s roof had suddenly caved in and collapsed.