They are called rat miners because they work like rats, digging into the earth to extract coals and minerals buried deep in the soil. It is a tough, hazardous job as they carry equipment that is heavy and tough to operate. What’s more, they can fall into the pits they create without any hope of returning to life. In short, it's a dangerous job.

The Supreme Court had banned rat mining. In short, rat miners do not enjoy any protection of the law, as theirs is an illegal activity. On November 12, the world heard with horror the news that a portion of the 4.5 Km-long tunnel being built in Uttarakhand caved in, trapping 41 workers. Most saw the tunnel as a mass tomb.

There would not have been a single Indian who would not have said a word of prayer for the workers trapped inside the tunnel. As one of the miners said, they did not know what to do as they started wailing and aimlessly moving about in the tunnel.

Fortunately, those managing the disaster, including an Australian, Arnold Dix, who is otherwise an unsuccessful cultivator of flowers, were able to drill a hole into the tunnel and insert a pipe. The pipe turned out to be the umbilical cord through which the miners received oxygen and food, including piping hot Dal and rice.

They were also able to get in touch with their wives, parents, and children. They knew that there were people working strenuously to rescue them. The latest technology and the latest equipment were brought and used to cut through the rubble and bring them out.

Alas, when technology failed and the blades of the heavy machines got stuck inside the rocks, the disaster managers decided to use human ingenuity, instead, to rescue them. That is how 12 rat miners were brought there, and they used their hand-held machines to bore through the mountain and reach the trapped 41.

They did an excellent, though legally-speaking, “illegal” job to reach the miners and bring them out. Alas, the father of one of them who lived in Jharkhand could not come to terms with the delay inherent in the rescue mission and died of what is called anxiety syndrome. That apart, it was a great moment for the 41 when they saw the world after 17 days of their stay inside the tunnel.

There was always the danger of further caving in of the tunnel burying them forever. When they smiled and had a hot beverage, the whole 1.4 billion people of this country heaved a sigh of relief and relished the moment. The real heroes of the rescue mission were the 12 rat miners.

They are the ones who rescued the reputation of the nation and saved the lives of the 41. I wish the Prime Minister who never misses a photo-opportunity had visited the site and welcomed them with a hug. Of course, they could have been asked to take a bath and wear fresh clothes for fear that they might spoil his costume.

In a way, it was good that Modi did not visit the site, for it could have diverted the attention of the district authorities from saving the miners to arranging security for him. In any case, he is fond of visiting Uttarakhand only to pray at the picturesque shrines located there. Anyway, let us leave him to his devices.

The composition of the 12-member team of rat miners was quite revealing. I could make out from their names that seven of them were Muslims. The rest were Hindus. Of course, they were not recruited on religious grounds. They were recruited for their competence to do the job.

The day the newspapers carried their names, Home Minister Amit Shah said somewhere that no force on earth could stop the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. The law was derailed by Covid-19 when bodies started floating in the sacred Ganga. I thought the government had learned its lessons.

What is special about the law is that it was for the first time after Independence that religion has been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship. Only non-Muslims can seek refuge in India. Christians were also excluded but fearing Western criticism, they were included. It is a different matter that hardly any Christians from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh seek refuge in India.

On the contrary, millions of Hindus are ready to migrate to the so-called Christian countries like Canada, America, Australia, and Europe. Small wonder that a wag says that India is the best country to fly away from.

The government also encourages such migration by giving them benefits under the People of Indian Origin, something denied to millions of Indians who slog in West Asia and send their remittances to India with which India buys military items. 

To return to Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on the day the workers were rescued that there should be a re-evaluation of the so-called development work in his state, especially in the context of the road-widening work. I doubt whether there would be any stoppage of the work.

Ecological concerns were real. The Supreme Court relented on the issue only after the government wielded the national security concerns to argue that road-widening was a must to protect national integrity. Let’s discuss this first.

The Himalayas have always protected India from foreign attacks. If Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan spared India, it was because of the trouble of ruling the country protected by deserts, mountains, and seas.

True, the Mughals and, earlier, those who eventually settled down on the banks of the Indus came through the Khyber Pass from their ancestral domains in Central Asia. It is a different matter that the first settlers call the latter settlers as “foreigners” when the original inhabitants of India are the tribals.

Be that as it may, Uttarakhand is known as “the land of the gods” (Devbhumi) because of its large number of Hindu pilgrimage sites. It is believed that during the Vedic period, several small republics existed in this region. Every devout Hindu aspires to visit Uttarakhand, especially Haridwar where Kumbh Mela is held. About 25 kms from Haridwar is where Rishikesh is situated.

On a recent visit to Rishikesh, I attended the evening Aarti on the banks of the Ganga. It was really a breathtaking event. The river is at its purest in Rishikesh from where it becomes polluted till it transforms itself into the Hooghly and falls into the Bay of Bengal in Kolkata.

If I, a Christian, felt moved by the sight, one can imagine how it would influence the Hindus, who consider watching the crystal-clear waters of the Ganga and taking a dip in it as the ultimate spiritual experience. There are four temples considered most sacred in the state. They are known as the Char Dham.

The temples are situated at Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath, and Kedarnath. In the olden days, only those who reached the fourth stage of life called Vanprasth attempted a visit to these places. If anyone died on the way, it was considered a good death.

Today, Uttarakhand attracts a large number of tourists, mostly religious. Ever since Modi came to power in 2014, his government has been busy widening the existing roads and making them shorter and straighter. It is known as the Char Dham project. The work was to be completed by 2022. 

About 70 percent of the work has already been completed. It will be finished by 2024, probably before the next Lok Sabha elections. The road will link all four pilgrim centres mentioned earlier. It will be an all-weather four-lane road, costing more than Rs 12,000 crore. Tens of thousands of trees have been cut, mountains have been flattened, and tunnels have been built for this purpose.

There are some areas prone to soil erosion. How safe the roads are in such areas is a matter of great concern. What happened at the tunnel under construction can occur when it is opened to traffic because adequate studies have not been made about the soil conditions. The area is also prone to earthquakes. That is precisely why ecologists and environmentalists have been protesting against the Char Dham project. It will have a ruinous effect on the state’s ecology. Floods caused by cloudbursts have already become quite common in the area.

That is when the government unleashed the national security argument. It was argued that the Chinese have built pucca roads on their part of the border. We also need to build roads so that our Army can move personnel and equipment in case there is a war.

In fact, one reason why India did not build roads in the area was to prevent invaders from reaching inside the country. They would find the natural obstacles so strong that they would not venture to penetrate them except at their own cost. By building roads on their side of the border linked to Beijing, China is making the task of a victorious Indian Army reaching their capital easy.

What is said about China can be said about India too. Roads do not distinguish between the vehicles of the enemy and our own. Those who argue that the non-BJP governments at the Centre did not care to build roads in the border areas do not remember this aspect of geography.

Once the roads are built, there would be heavy traffic of pilgrims to such places. They will lose their uniqueness. For instance, when Tensing and Hillary climbed Mount Everest in 1953, it was a great feat for mankind. As of January 2023: 6338 persons have climbed Mount Everest. Climbing Everest no longer makes news.

When I first went to Guwahati by air, the pilot announced that Mount Everest could be seen on the left side. Nowadays the pilots do not make such announcements either because they do not know about it or they think that it is not worthy of an announcement.

With technology and sophisticated machines, a road can, perhaps, be built to allow vehicles to reach Everest. Will it serve any purpose? It will only destroy the pristine-ness of Everest. Let me recall what happened in Sabarimala on the Western Ghats in Kerala.

In my childhood only the most devout would attempt a journey to Sabarimala. Every pilgrim had to observe certain rituals. Every day they had to visit the temple and pray. They were not allowed to eat non-vegetarian food, shave their beard, and sleep on soft beds. They were not expected to sleep with their partners during the 41 days of rituals.

They feared that if they broke any of the rules, the tiger would take them away while walking through the thick rain-fed forests or snakes would bite them. There were no hotels on the way, and they had to cook their food.

Things have changed drastically in Sabarimala. Now, millions of people visit the temple from all over the South. More Tamils and Telugus than Malayalis visit the temple. It has become fashionable for people to say that “I visited Sabarimala yesterday and came back this morning”.

Because of the huge flow of pilgrims, the river Pampa is polluted at its source. The environment suffers a lot. Is the Sabarimala temple helping the state’s economy? Enormous sums of money have to be spent to keep the roads in perfect condition and to make security arrangements.

The pilgrims do not spend any money as they prefer to sleep wherever possible and eat cheap vegetarian food. Whether the visits make the pilgrims better persons or not is something I am incompetent to answer. Let me leave this to the readers.

I would have loved to visit the Char Dham shrines for their serenity, uniqueness, and loftiness. I would not like to go there by helicopter or by the autobahn that Modi builds because for me, the journey is more interesting than the destination. This was, I believe, the thought that guided millions of people who tried to visit Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath, albeit mostly unsuccessfully. 

ajphilip@gmail.com