Navy retrieves body of Meghalaya miner 77 days after tragedy; body recovered using UROV and NDRF boat

Shillong: The heavily decomposed body of an unidentified miner has been retrieved from a 370-foot 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. [caption id=“attachment_6170121” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The body of one more miner was recovered from a rat-hole mine in Meghalaya. ANI[/caption] According to the official, the body, located 200 feet from the bottom of the mine, was brought out on Wednesday using Indian Navy’s underwater remotely operated vehicle (UROV) and an NDRF boat. This is the second “heavily” decomposed body to be lifted from the mine after it flooded accidentally on 13 December, 2018. The body was dispatched to Civil Hospital at the district headquarter in Khliehriat for post-mortem, operations spokesperson R Susngi told PTI. The miners were trapped inside the illegal mine in Lumthari village of East Jaintia Hills district on 13 December after water from the nearby Lytein river gushed in. The first body, identified as that of Amir Hussain from Assam’s Chirang district, was pulled out of the mine on 23 January . Apart from the Indian Navy, the Army, the NDRF and the state’s agencies are engaged in the operations that begun 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 one crore litres , Susngi said.