The family members of the miners have been alerted.
Fourty-two days after 15 men got trapped inside the illegal rat-hole mine in Khloo Ryngksan in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district, the NDRF and Indian Navy managed to pull out the body of the first miner on Thursday.
In a joint operation, a six member team comprising three officials of the Indian Navy, two from the NDRF and a civil hospital staff went into the main shaft with the help of an inflatable boat. The miner’s body was pulled out to the surface through the Indian Navy’s Remotely Operated (ROV) and then packed into a body bag. Later, other officials helped take out the body.
A senior official engaged in the rescue operation said while the face had decomposed, the body was largely intact. However, the rescuers had to take precaution while pulling out the extremely fragile bodies.
According to the district officials, an inquiry was conducted by a magistrate in the presence of Deputy Commissioner F M Dopth. The district medical head Dr Mitul Sangma conducted a post-mortem and the body will be taken to the Khliehriat Community Health Centre, 36 km from the mine at Khlooryngksan, officials said.
The body will be kept in cold storage to allow the relatives to come and identify, Susngi said.According to a statement issued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), "After all the hardship and our dedicated efforts, a body was recovered from the main shaft." NDRF personnel from Guwahati led by its Assistant Commandant Santosh Kumar Singh has been involved in the search and rescue operation in the coal mine since the day of tragedy.
Meanwhile, the Indian Navy continued with their search operation using the unmanned ROV for the 14 other miners who are still trapped inside, Susngi said.
The other agencies involved in dewatering the nearby abandoned mines on Thursday pumped out over 64.74 lakh litres of water in the past 24 hours, according to the spokesperson.
Pumps from Coal India Ltd, KSB and Odhisa Fire Service have been put into service, he said.
On the other hand, rescuers have informed the family members of all 15 miners who were trapped inside the mine so that they can identify their family member.A day ago, this same body slipped from the Navy’s ROV and disengaged. Efforts to engage the body with the ROV began again today morning. After several hours into the operation today, the body was successfully pulled out.
On December 13, as many as 15 miners were trapped inside the 370-feet deep rat-hole mine after water from the nearby Lytein river flooded it.
Several agencies – Indian Navy, NDRF, Odisha Fire Services Department and Meghalaya government’s disaster management group were pressed into the rescue operations. However, it took a month for the high powered pumps from Coal India and Kirloskar Brothers to arrive at the spot and engage in the rescue operations.
Despite several lakh litres of water being pumped out through the high powered pumps, the main shaft still has water till 170 feet.
With PTI inputs
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