Jaswant Singh Gill

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jaswant Singh Gill

• Jaswant Singh Gill was an Indian mine engineer who is known for rescuing 65 coal miners in Raniganj, West Bengal, in 1989. His rescue operation is considered India’s first successful coal mine rescue operation. ^[8]The Tribune

• While he was in school and college, he used to participate in various athletic and bhangra competitions.

  

• After completing his graduation, he cleared the entrance exam of the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

• Later, he got a job offer at a coal firm named Karam Chand Thapar & Bros (coal Sales) Ltd. He joined the company and worked there for a few years.

• In 1972, he started working at Coal India Limited as an engineer. Later, he was promoted to Sub-Divisional Engineer and was then Executive Engineer at Coal India Limited. He was then promoted to Chief General Manager ED (Safety & Rescue) at Coal India Limited, Raniganj, West Bengal.

• On 13 November 1989, while he was working in Raniganj, West Bengal, as Chief General Manager ED (Safety & Rescue), a coal mine accident took place in the area. On that day, 220 miners at a coal mine in Raniganj, West Bengal, were working. They were breaking coal walls with multiple blasts. While they were working, someone accidentally touched the upper seam of the mine, due to which, water started flooding the mine. Some miners evacuated immediately, but 71 miners were left back in the borewell as the shafts were flooded with water. Out of 71 people, six people drowned and 65 were left trapped in the borewell.

• To save the miners, Jaswant Singh planned a rescue operation by making a steel capsule that would help them to carry one person at a time from the borewell.
  

  

  He then decided to drill another borehole of 22 inches in diameter through which the capsule could travel. The capsule took around 2 days of continuous effort, and by midnight of 15 November 2022, the capsule was ready. The capsule was brought to the place of the incident, and two rescue men were briefed on the rescue process, but at the last moment, they ran away. Then, Jaswant Singh asked the then chair­man of Coal In­dia Ltd to allow him to go down in the capsule. However, the chairman was not willing to risk Jaswant’s life. After a discussion with Jaswant, the chairman agreed with Jaswant and said,

  The man who res­cues these min­ers, his name will be writ­ten in golden let­ters in the his­tory of min­ing.”

  

  On 16 November 1989, at 2:30 am, Jaswant entered the capsule and went down into the borewell where 65 miners were trapped. In an interview, Jaswant’s son talked about the incident which he had heard from his father. He said,

  At 2:30 am, on the night of 16 No­vem­ber 1989, my fa­ther en­tered the Cap­sule to go down into a cer­tain death trap. Al­most a hun­dred thou­sand peo­ple who had by now gath­ered at the site shouted slo­gans to en­cour­age him. As the Cap­sule be­gan its de­scent, the torque in the new steel rope started re­liev­ing and made the Cap­sule spin at a high speed in a clock­wise mo­tion and then in an an­ti­clock­wise mo­tion. It was a nerve-wrack­ing en­deav­our, yet my fa­ther con­quered his fear with sheer de­ter­mi­na­tion and con­cen­tra­tion. In about 15 min­utes he reached the pit bot­tom as a man­ual winch was be­ing used to lower the Cap­sule.”

  After reaching the borewell, Jaswant Singh started sending the trapped workers one by one through the capsule. Jaswant’s son talked about the situation at that time. He said,

  As soon as he opened the front hatch of the Cap­sule, he saw 65 scared faces in front of him with the fear of im­pend­ing death writ large on their faces. He caught hold of the near­est worker, put him into the Cap­sule and sig­nalled with a ham­mer he was car­ry­ing for the Cap­sule to be hoisted up. He then turned to the re­main­ing min­ers and asked if any of them was in­jured or sick. The first 9 to­kens were given to those who had in­juries and those who had a fever. He then asked for the hi­er­ar­chy of the work­ers and gave out to­kens from the ju­nior most to the se­nior-most work­ers and told them that he would va­cate the mine last af­ter send­ing all of them out one by one.”

  After saving all 65 miners, Jaswant Singh came from the borewell in the last. The rescue operation took almost six hours. Since then, in India, 16 November is marked as ‘Rescue Day’ to commemorate the rescue operation.

• Later, he helped in the rescue operation of 14 miners trapped in the coal mine at East Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya.

• Jaswant Singh was felicitated at various events for his bravery in the 1989 coal mine rescue operation.

• In 1998, he retired from Coal In­dia Ltd, West Bengal and returned to his hometown.

• In 2008, he was appointed as one of the members of the Disaster Management Committee, Amritsar, Punjab, India.

• On 26 April 2018, he was appointed as the President of Rotary International. He was actively involved in various social services.

• In early 2019, he was invited as a guest speaker at the talk show ‘Josh Talks’ (Punjabi).

  

• On 26 November 2019, he took his last breath at his home in Amritsar, Punjab, India. His antim ardaas (last rites) were performed at Gurudwara Chhevin Patshahi, A/B Block, Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Punjab, India last rites.

• In his memory, Jaswant Singh Gill Memorial Industrial Safety Excellence Award was started with award money of Rs 50,000. A chowk on Majitha Road, Amritsar is also named after him.

  

• A memorial gate at Kunustoria Area, Eastern Coalfield Limited, and a garden in ECL West Bengal has also been named after him.
  

  

  

• Later, in his memory, a bulletin was also released.

• On 11 April 2022, his portrait was unveiled at the Sikh Museum in the Holy Golden Temple. The event was attended by his family members.

  

• In an interview, Jaswant’s son shared that once Jaswant was approached by the Indian director Tinu Desai for his (Jaswant’s) biopic. Jaswant’s son said,
  

  In 2017, he (Jaswant) was ap­proached by Tinu De­sai from Mum­bai, who had di­rected the Bol­ly­wood movie Rus­tom with ac­tor Ak­shay Ku­mar and of­fered to make a Hindi movie on the res­cue. Un­for­tu­nately, my fa­ther passed away on 26 No­vem­ber 2019, fol­low­ing a mas­sive car­diac ar­rest.”

• In November 2022, the first look of the Indian actor Akshay Kumar from the Hindi film ‘Capsule Gill’ later named ‘Mission Raniganj’ was released. In the film, he was roped in to portray Jaswant Singh Gill. In one of the tweets, Akshay Kumar confirmed his role in the film. He tweeted,
  

  Grateful to you @JoshiPralhad ji, for recalling India’s first coal mine rescue mission – this day 33yrs ago. मेरा सौभाग्य है कि मैं #SardarJaswantSinghGill जी का किरदार अपनी फ़िल्म में निभा रहा हूँ. It’s a story like no other!@easterncoal.”

  

  In a tweet, the director of the film Vashu Bhagnani tweeted,

  Remembering Late #SardarJaswantSinghGill on this day, who rescued the lives of miners who were stuck in the coal mines of Raniganj under very difficult circumstances. It is indeed an honour and privilege to showcase his heroic act in our next film.”