'Silkyara Saviours' Win India's Heroes Award. They Recollect Daring Rescue

A group of men who rescued 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed tunnel in Uttarakhand were honoured with NDTV's India's Heroes Award.

The workers inside the tunnel in Uttarakhand's Silkyara had been trapped for 17 days, and some of the world's best experts and equipment had failed to make any progress - until these men came with basic tools and started digging, using an outlawed technique known as "rat-hole mining". They are the Silkyara Saviours.

The men honoured with the award are Vakeel Hasan, Munna Qureshi, Nasheen Md, Rasheed Md Eshaad, Feroz, Naseerudin, and Kalimullah.

"It was God's blessing and the wishes of 144 crore people of India that made this rescue mission a success," the Uttarakhand rescue heroes said. "What can a human do alone? It was the love and encouragement that gave us the strength," they said.

On whether at any point during the rescue operation they felt they wouldn't be able to make it, considering the huge challenge they faced, Munna Qureshi said his friend Vakeel Hasan called him to say 41 people are trapped under a tunnel and we need to do something fast.

"I didn't know about it. We work hard for a living, take care of family, and get no time to see the news. Then bhaiyan said 41 people need to be rescued. Big, big machines have failed. I asked him to send us a video of the condition, which he did," Mr Qureshi said.

"I saw the video and told him, yes, we can rescue them. Our whole team got ready. When we reached the site later, we figured it would take 24 to 36 hours. But these days people believe more in diploma than in experience," he added.

An American auger machine had failed to cut through the debris blocking the escape path for the 41 workers. Mr Qureshi and his team then used the rat-hole mining technique, which involves one man drilling, another collecting the rubble, and the third placing it on a trolley to be pulled out. They were not rat-hole miners, but knew the technique, the Uttarakhand government's nodal officer Neeraj Khairwal had said.

The NDTV Indian of the Year Awards honour people who have displayed foresight, embraced uniqueness, and redefined the essence of being a true Indian.