Indian Navy’s underwater remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) captured the image of a human body in a rat-hole mine in Meghalaya, where 15 miners have been trapped since December 13 . But attempts to extricate it with the underwater device failed after it was pulled up towards the mouth of the mine, officials said.
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The bloated body was detected 210 ft inside the rat-hole mine. The rat-hole, a near-horizontal tunnel, branches out from the vertical shaft of the mine at a depth of 160 ft. “Divers are not able to go down due to the conditions in the mine. So they have employed an ROV,” Navy spokesperson, Capt. D.K. Sharma said. Officials said the search in the rat-hole mine at Ksan, where 10 Navy divers are at work for more than three weeks, has been a hit and trial effort.
Skeletons too found
The ROV had located some skeletons, apart from the body, on Wednesday night. The body was decomposed due to high content of sulphur, which had reacted with water and converted into acid. Forensic experts reached the site on Thursday to decide how to proceed further. Officials said it would be difficult to identify the bodies.
“We don’t know if the body located is one of the miners or someone who had been buried there earlier. We need to carry out tests to be sure,” an officer said.
On Thursday afternoon, the East Jaintia Hills district authorities invited the family of the five trapped miners — three from Lumthari village nearby and two from Chirang district in Assam — to view the videos taken by the ROV.
“The body started disintegrating after it was pulled up to 100 ft from the 210 ft position it was originally detected in. We have sought the opinion of the relatives of the miners,” the district’s spokesperson R. Susngi said. Around 4,714,200 litres of water was pumped out of the main shaft as well as adjoining mines, interconnected underneath, during the day.
Sonar mapping
An ROV operated by the Chennai-based Planys Technologies also carried out sonar mapping of the main shaft and detected a rat-hole.
Manik Ali, brother of one of the trapped miners, said he helped the rescue personnel map out the area. The Meghalaya authorities had summoned him from his village Bogidari in Assam’s Chirang district.
“From the condition of the body, identifying it seems impossible. Our only hope is if any of them found an airy vertical gap,” said Mr Ali, who has experience working as a coal miner.
