MHA help sought to rescue trapped miners in Meghalaya

The Meghalaya government Monday sought the Union Home Ministry's help to rescue 13 miners who were trapped in an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district for the past five days, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said.

The decision to seek MHA help comes after the initial rescue operations proved to be futile and the exercise to pump water out of the 370-feet-deep mine yielded little result, he told newsmen here.

The miners were trapped on December 13 after water from nearby Lytein river had gushed into the illegal rat-hole mine at Ksan area Lumthari village, a senior district official, who is supervising the rescue operation, said, adding that the miners are now feared dead.

"I have spoken to the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and requested him to send in more professional teams and the best equipment they have," Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told mediapersons at the sidelines of a programme here on Monday.

The union minister, he said, has taken up the matter with experts and soon more assistance would arrive at the accident site.

Conrad said rescue teams are trying their "level best" but the situation was "very difficult" as no matter how many pumps they used the flow of water was so high they were unable to bring it down to a level where they would be able to rescue the trapped miners.

He assured the government will engage "whoever it takes and will try its level best to save the lives of the people who are trapped inside".

Rescuers are using the sonar system and underwater cameras to detect the 13 miners but due to poor visibility in the water, the trapped miners could not be located, officials said.

Sonar is an acronym for Sound Navigation and Ranging and is a technique that uses sound propagation, usually underwater to navigate, communicate with or detect objects on or under the surface of the water.

The NDRF teams, which are involved in the rescue operation, along with the SDRF, have suggested to the district administration to call in Oil Natural Gas Corporation to deploy submersible water pumps to reduce the water level.

According to an expert in the water resources management, over 5 lakh litres of water, reaching up to 70 feet, was estimated to be present in the main shaft of the mine.

Meanwhile, the district superintendent of police Silvester Nongtyngnger said the actual number of victims could not be ascertained officially as there was no record of the miners engaged at any particular point in time.

A person identified as Krip Chullet has been arrested in connection with the incident. He was allegedly involved in hiring labourers, overseeing the work and sending them down the shaft.

In 2014, the National Green Tribunal had imposed a ban in Meghalaya on rat-hole coal mining a technique that entails digging small vertical pits to reach the mineral pockets.