That figure was Gabbar Singh Negi - who was born 260 km away, in Uttarakhand's Pauri Garhwal district - and had the unfortunate distinction of having been in tunnel collapses thrice before.
The "softly, softly" approach to drilling escape holes was key to freeing the 41 men trapped beneath the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand, tunnelling expert Arnold Dix told NDTV Wednesday.
A team of "rat-hole miners" began manual drilling operations yesterday to reach the 41 workers trapped within the debris of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi as rescue ops entered Day 17.
Rescue teams racing to save 41 men trapped in an Uttarakhand tunnel have cleared the final few metres of debris - thanks to the banned manual "rat-hole"-mining technique being employed after high-tech machines failed.