Meghalaya mine tragedy: Second heavily decomposed body retrieved

Shillong, Feb 28: The heavily decomposed body of an unidentified miner has been retrieved from a 370 ft illegal rat-hole mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district, 77 days after 15 men got trapped inside the flooded coal quarry, an official said.

According to the official, the body, located 200 ft away from the bottom of the mine, was brought out using the Indian Navy's underwater remotely operated vehicle (UROV) and an NDRF boat on Wednesday. This is the second "heavily" decomposed body to be lifted from the mine after it flooded accidentally on December 13, 2018.

It was dispatched to the civil hospital at the district headquarters at Khliehriat for post-mortem examination, operations spokesperson R Susngi told PTI. The miners were trapped deep inside the coal pit after water from the nearby Lytein river had gushed into the mine at Lumthari village in the Ksan area of East Jaintia Hills district.

The first body, identified as that of Amir Hussain from Assam's Chirang district, was pulled out of the mine on January 23. Apart from the Indian Navy, the Army and the NDRF, the state's agencies are engaged in the operations that began hours after the accident took place.

Three companies, the Coal India Ltd, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and the KSB, continued with de-watering the mines and their total water discharge in 24 hours is over 1 crore litres, Susngi said.

PTI