After 44 days, the bodies of the remaining five miners who were trapped inside the flooded rat-hole coal mine at 3 Kilo Umrangso area in Assam's Dima Hasao district were recovered by the rescue teams on Wednesday.

The incident had also stirred a debate on the prevalence of illegal rat-hole mining in the state and had precipitated a crackdown on such mines not just in Dima Hasao but also in coal reserves in Eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district.

DNA tests will be conducted to identify the men as the bodies are in a decomposed state, a state official told the BBC. On 6 January, nine miners were trapped after water flooded the so-called "rat-hole" mine,

After 44 days, bodies of five miners who had been trapped in a flooded coal mine in Assam's Dima Hasao district were recovered.