Meghalaya mining tragedy: Decomposed body parts detected by Navy ROV

Some body parts were detected by the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) of the Indian Navy that has been engaged in rescue efforts to trace trapped miners in a coal mine being operated illegally at Khloo Ryngksan in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district on Sunday.

According to R Susngi, spokesperson of East Jaintia Hills district administration, “decomposed body parts” were detected on Sunday by the Indian Navy crew and till filing of this report, attempts are being made to salvage them.

“The exercise will continue throughout the night and is expected to last till tomorrow morning,” the official spokesperson said even as he was unsure whether the body parts spotted belonged to the second body detected by the ROV on January 26 but slipped the ROV’s jaws during retrieval efforts.

In all 1,40,76,000 litres of water were pumped out by teams from Coal India, Kirloskar and KSB on Sunday, the spokesperson informed while adding that the NDRF were rendering all assistance to the rescue teams on site.

Two hundred and fifty personnel from the National and State Disaster Response Forces, Indian Navy, Kirloskar Brothers, KSB Pumps, district administration, police, Coal India, National Geophysical Research Institute, Odisha Fire Service, Planys Technology and the National Institute of Hydrology have been involved since the disaster struck, though the latter three have left the scene.

The Odisha Fire Service were one of the first agencies from outside the state to arrive at the mine, but their pumps were not high-powered enough. Planys, meanwhile, brought in small ROVs, but these were not compatible with the situation on the ground. The Indian Air Force and the Indian Army too chipped in towards the rescue efforts by providing all required logistics as and when requested by the state government.