‘Like Brothers’: Rescued Indian Tunnel Workers Stayed Hopeful Through Ordeal

Workers, who were rescued from a tunnel which collapsed in Uttarkashi, walk to board an Indian Air Force's Chinook helicopter to be airlifted to AIIMS Rishikesh hospital, in Chinyalisaur, in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, on Nov. 29, 2023. Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

CHINYALISAUR, India—Hope that they would be rescued soon kept many of the workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in India strong through their ordeal, some of the men said on Wednesday, hours after they were pulled out of 17 days of confinement.

All 41 men, low-wage workers from some of India’s poorest states, were rescued, and were being taken to a specialist hospital in Rishikesh city after spending the night at a makeshift medical facility in this small Himalayan town.