Waiting for son’s body, he says: Would have been with him on New Year day

Godda mine collapse toll climbs; 12 bodies recovered, as many still trapped

“Kal saal ka pehla din hai... uske ghar jaata (Tomorrow’s the first day of the new year... I would have gone to his house),” mumbles Baleshwar Mahato, as he sat near the barricade tape that cordoned off the site of Thursday night’s mine collapse in Godda district of Jharkhand that killed at least 12 miners and trapped as many. Baleshwar’s son, 22year-old Kuleshwar, is among those trapped and he is now waiting to hear from the rescue team.

Baleshwar, in his 50s, and Kuleshwar worked as bulldozer operators at Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL)’S Lal Matia coal mine, which caved in on Thursday. Until 18 months ago, Baleshwar worked at a mine in Andhra Pradesh, but when it closed, he moved to Godda to work with Kuleshwar. While the father lived in the workers’ camp at the mine, Kuleshwar lived in a house near the mine with his wife and eight-month-old son. Baleshwar’s wife and younger son live in Barhi in the state’s Hazaribagh district.

Workers at the mine said that around 4 pm on Thursday, the mud on one side of a pit, which was being excavated, began to slide. An alert was sounded and after minor repairs, work continued. It was around this time that Baleshwar was asked to move to another section of the mine. “My supervisors asked me to take my dumper to another site. Until then, I was with my son. After that first warning, there was another alert around 6 pm, when a bigger chunk of mud slid down. But work continued where Kuleshwar was and then, this tragedy struck,” says Baleshwar, who has been hired by Mahalaxmi Private Limited, the company that does the excavation work on behalf of ECL.

A couple of hours later, the rescue teams ask Baleshwar to identify his son from among the bodies recovered from the