SHILLONG, June 19: Three days after its retrieval, the body of the miner has remained unidentified as no one has come forward to claim it. There was no clear word as to how long would be body be kept for identification or how it would be disposed of eventually.
Meanwhile, the rescue operation failed to make further head way at Krem Ule, Umpleng in East Jaintia Hills on Saturday, as the navy divers could not dive in the water-logged mines due to bad weather .
According to an official, the navy divers did not dive due to the maintenance of equipment and bad weather conditions but also the dewatering process came in the way.
The 12-member of the Indian Navy diving team, that has been pressed into action since 12th June to rescue five miners trapped, has recovered body of one miner.
It was also informed that in continuation of the rescue operations the rescue teams of NDRF and SDRF verified the level of water found it receded by 8 feet . “About 4.50 lakhs of water has been pumped out from the main shaft and about 130.50 lakhs litres of water from the 2nd shaft,” the official informed.
Currently, over 50 personnel from National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, District Disaster Response Force, Fire and Emergency Service and the police have been deployed at the site, and the Naval divers trained to dive to such depths are carrying out the critical task of searching and retrieving the trapped miners.
Even with incessant rains, low visibility and numerous obstacles, the Indian Navy divers assiduously continued with the search operation which has entered the sixth day, even though hopes of finding anyone alive have evaporated a long time ago.
While the divers have specialised equipment such as the Diver Hand Held Navigation System (DHNS) for bottom-mapping of the mine-shaft, any technology can do little to ameliorate the raw, gut-wrenching adversity that such an operation entails.
It may be recalled that the Indian Navy had earlier assisted in the rescue and recovery effort of 15 miners trapped in a mine in Ksan, Meghalaya under similar conditions, in December 2018.
