#Review: Operation Silkyara by Saurabh Sharma

I went into Operation Silkyara expecting a straightforward account of the 2023 Silkyara tunnel rescue, but what stayed with me was how effectively the book captures the sheer uncertainty of those days. We know the ending now; the people inside the operation did not. That difference gives the narrative much of its tension.

What I particularly liked was the human scale of the story. Sharma doesn’t turn the rescue into a single-hero narrative. Instead, we see the miners, their families, engineers, officials, police personnel, rescue workers and administrators all becoming part of this enormous, constantly changing puzzle. The book makes it clear that rescuing the trapped workers was not one dramatic breakthrough, but a succession of setbacks, improvisations and increasingly desperate attempts to find a way in.

The reporting also gives the book a strong sense of immediacy. There is something fascinating about seeing how decisions were made when every hour mattered and every technical solution seemed to come with its own problem.

That said, the book isn’t flawless. At times, the sheer number of people, agencies, technical details and parallel developments makes the narrative slightly difficult to track. Some sections feel more like an extensive piece of reportage than a tightly structured narrative, and I occasionally wanted the emotional lives of the trapped workers and their families to be explored more deeply rather than the operational developments taking centre stage. A little more trimming would also have made the pacing sharper.

Still, those are relatively minor complaints. The strength of Operation Silkyara lies in making a widely reported event feel immediate again. It reminded me that extraordinary rescues are rarely about one spectacular moment—they are about persistence, teamwork, ingenuity and refusing to give up when every obvious option has failed.

Find this book here.