More Than Two Months After Miners Were Trapped, Rescuers Locate Another Body In Meghalaya Mine
The Indian Navy, which recently resumed the search for the remains of the miners, who were trapped inside an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district, has spotted skeletal remains of yet another trapped man.
The Navy team? detected a skeleton on the 74th day of the operations on Sunday, over 150 feet away from the bottom of the 370-feet-deep vertical mine shaft where the miners were trapped.
"The underwater ROV of the Indian Navy on Sunday detected skeletons of the third miner deep inside the coal mine. Efforts are on to retrieve it," a senior district official told PTI.
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This is the third body the search teams have been able to locate inside the abandoned mine, which is still flooded.
The first body was spotted on January 16 inside one of the flooded shafts of the rat hole mine. It took more than a week since then to bring it back to the surface as the water level and depth of the shaft made it difficult for the divers to enter the mine.
Just two days after the first body was retrieved, a second decomposed body was located at the depth of 280 feet inside the mine. Till now it has not been brought back to the surface.?
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On Sunday, the Navy has launched an overnight operation to pull out the third body, which is completely in a decomposed state.
The Navy team is being backed by experts from Coal India Ltd and Kirloskar Brothers Ltd who are pumping out water from the coal mine.
The coal mine, which was being operated illegally was flooded on December 13 when fifteen men were inside the shaft, digging for coal.
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It is believed that one of the miners could have accidentally punctured the wall of the mine separating it from the Lytein River, causing the water to gush in, trapping the men instantly.
Rat hole mining was banned in Meghalaya in 2014 by the National Green Tribunal, but it has been continuing illegally in remote areas of the state, with the knowledge of local authorities.
