After a gap of two days, Navy personnel on Tuesday resumed the operation to retrieve the remains of a body found in the Meghalaya coal mine , where at least 15 miners have been trapped since December 31.
A spokesperson in the State’s East Jaintia Hills district said the Navy started the process of extracting the body with the help of an underwater robot from 11 a.m. Earlier attempts to extract the body had hit the skids because it was in a highly decomposed state.
Fishing for clues
Meanwhile, district officials have been trying to contact the five people who had escaped the mishap on December 13 for a better idea of the mine to enable faster detection and retrieval of the bodies.
“The remains of the body were pulled near the main shaft. But the process to bring it to the top of the mine shaft will take some more time because of obstructions,” the spokesperson said.
The U.S.-made robot had located the body 210 ft inside a rat-hole mine that branches off from the main shaft at a depth of 160 ft. The body is crucial for forensic experts to study for identification.
District officials have been trying to contact the five people who had escaped the mishap on December 13 for a better idea of the mine to enable faster detection and retrieval of the bodies.
The other agencies, meanwhile, on Tuesday pumped out 8,015,400 litres of water from the main shaft and adjoining abandoned mines interconnected underneath. They have till date pumped out almost three crore litres, but much of the water has been seeping back in.