Meghalaya Mine Tragedy: After 2 Months, Fourth Body Detected

At least 15 miners were trapped after water from the nearby Lytein river gushed into the illegal rat-hole mine in Lumthari village in the Ksan area on 13 December last year.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@NagaJournal)

The Indian Navy on Monday, 25 February, detected the highly decomposed body of another miner, the fourth of the 15 miners trapped inside a 370-foot-deep illegal rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district for over two months, officials said.

Navy teams were using a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to retrieve the third body, detected on Sunday, 23 February. They, however, said retrieving the bodies might disintegrate them.

At least 15 miners were trapped deep inside the illegal coal pit, owned by a person identified by authorities as Krip Chulet, since 13 December.

After 75 days, only one body could be retrieved intact.

"The fourth body was found at 230ft in general area where the third body was found. It is located about 20 feet away from the pulley cart used to transport the dug-out coal," operation spokesperson R Susngi told PTI.

He said the body was found on the deck and negatively buoyant and efforts are on to retrieve it.

The district official said Navy teams were trying their best to retrieve the body parts of the miner detected by ROV about 170 feet from the bottom.

Two decomposed bodies were spotted earlier and out of them only one body could be recovered, the officials said. 

The second body was detected last month and it had slipped away from the jaws of the ROV. That body is yet to be located. Only one body could be retrieved till date.

The Army has also joined the rescue operations along with the Navy, the NDRF and other agencies.

The process of dewatering the mine is also on with three different organisations such as the Coal India Ltd, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and KSB, discharging over 1 crore litres of water in a span of 24 hours, he said.

The Supreme Court is monitoring the operation closely and the matter will come up for hearing on Monday, 25 February.

The state government has paid Rs 1 lakh interim relief to the family members of each of the victims.

Home Minister James K Sangma had said the operations to search for the miners will continue as per orders of the Supreme Court.

He also said the government is yet to get details of the expenses incurred in the operations which involved mostly dewatering of the mine.