Meghalaya coal mine tragedy: 3 families invited to view ROV captured video

Families of three miners who were trapped in a mine at Ksan near Lyteiñ River in East Jaintia Hills were invited on Thursday to view the video captured by the underwater vehicle, after the Navy divers spotted skeletons during the rescue operation.

Deputy Commissioner of East Jaintia Hills Federick M Dopth on Thursday invited the families. Of the three families, one belonged to Lumthari and two from Chirang district. The video was captured by the remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), an official statement said.

The families have been informed that the bodies had decomposed and their retrieval would lead to total disintegration.

The families will furnish their views on Friday.

Earlier in the day, the Indian Navy initially detected body of one miner out of 15 who are trapped in the mine for over a month now. So far the body has been pulled up to 100 feet only from a depth of 210 feet.

Moreover, the Odhisa Fire Service operated their pump from 11 am to 3.30 pm and discharged around 4,05,000 litres of water.

On the other hand, the Coal India Ltd worked continuously for 19 hours and pumped out around 43,09,200 litres of water from two shafts.

Meanwhile, the Plenys-Chennai technology operated their ROVs and also carried out a sonar mapping of the shaft and detected one rat hole.

The main shaft was surveyed to understand the geological scenario. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) provided assistance to other agencies with all the resources available.

The engineers of a German company, KSB, have been trying their best to install pumps to discharge more water. However, the attempts remained unsuccessful due to mechanical snag.

"Operation by Navy started three weeks back. We are a team of 10 people. We have sent a team of divers with an officer and latest equipment. Last night, we recovered a dead body at a depth of around 150 feet from the surface. For now, divers are using hit and trial method. The search operation will be continued till the government asks us to step back," Navy spokesperson Capt DK Sharma told ANI while describing the task.

"Difficulty of operation can be understood by the fact that divers have to use ROVs. As there are many uncharted small mines, it is difficult to understand where to head next," he added.

As many as 15 miners have been trapped in the illegal mine in Lumthari village since December 13 last year, when water from the nearby Lytein river flooded the mine. Since then, a multi-agency rescue operation has been attempting to evacuate the miners.