At least four illegal miners, on a mission to excavate mica scraps, were buried alive on Thursday in Ghatwa village in Fulwaria, three kilometers away from the Koderma district headquarters.

According to sources, villagers from nearby Purnadih and Dumariatand villages including Mahendra Das, Lakhan Das, Chandar Das, Kaushalya Devi, Sanjay Singh Ghatwar, Rajesh Singh Ghatwar, and few a others came in search of mica scrap when the mine suddenly collapsed on them, killing the four.

Villagers managed to pull out Rajesh and Sanjay, who were admitted in hospital, But their condition remained critical.

On receiving information, Superintendent of Police Ehtesham Waquarib, divisional forest officer Suraj Kumar and sub-divisional officer Manish Kumar reached there and ensured the start of the relief work. However, during the late night operations, they failed to find any trace of the bodies.

By 11 am on Friday, relief workers managed to fish out two dead bodies of Lakhan Das and Kaushalya Devi, and are still struggling to find Mahendra Das and Chandar Das.

Police officials said that the accident had made them aware of the illegal mining in the area, carried out by one Islam Mian. They said that they had spotted illegal mines and had asked the villagers not to participate, warning them of action if they did.

Jharkhand has banned mica mining more than two decades ago, but the high demand of the mineral in several industries has resulted in villagers risking their lives to collect the scrap and hand it over to middlemen. This scrap is then transported to other countries via Calcutta. Koderma and Giridih are rich sources of mica, and thus such accidents take place in the area from time to time.

District officials have now hinted of taking action to stop this illegal activity in the district.