After 422 anxious hours, families rejoice

As the quaint mountain town of Kotdwar in Uttarakhand was lighting up on Diwali day, Jaimal Singh Negi’s life descended into darkness.

- Amit Bathla and Neeraj Santoshi

That afternoon, he received a call that said his vivacious younger brother, Gabbar Singh Negi, was trapped alongside 40 other men inside an under-construction tunnel in Silkyara. Distraught, the 63-year-old rushed to the open tunnel face. As night fell on the Himalayas that evening, and hulking excavators roared up the slope to break through the wall of rocks, debris and mud that blocked the men, Jaimal steeled himself, hoping against hope.

He’d need that conviction; Over the next 422 hours, through the peaks and troughs of the painstaking operation, as the rescuers repeatedly found their hopes dashed by failing machines or falling mounds of debris, Jaimal never left the hillside. “I spent all my time, day and night, outside the tunnel, hoping for my brother to come out,” he said.

At 8.30pm on Tuesday, his faith paid off as rescuers pulled out Gabbar and all 40 of his fellow workers through a steel chute that cut through the rock face. He was shaken, but unhurt and in high spirits, happy at the glimpse of the twinkling night sky after 17 days. “It’s like a Diwali for us today. I have finally been able to see him,” Jaimal said, his voice choked with emotion.