The 13 miners trapped inside a rat hole coal mine in East Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, since a fortnight are suspected to be dead by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF.)
The miners were trapped in the flooded illegal rat hole coal mine since the 13th of December.
The NDRF and the Meghalaya Government are trying their best to rescue the 13 people. After so many days of rescue attempts, the NDRF reported a foul odour from the hole. They said, the miners may be dead and their bodies are decomposing inside the hole, causing the foul odour.
Santosh Singh, the Assistant Commandant of the NDRF, over the report of foul odour, said, “This is not a good sign.”
Mr. Singh, yesterday, briefed 3 NDRF divers and asked them to go inside the mine and find out the possibility of rescuing the miners. He said, “Please check whether the water level has gone down. I don’t think it will happen without fresh pumping. Check for the water’s odour and if you see anything floating on the surface.”
He further spoke about the rescue operation and said, the NDRF is pumping water out of the mine, but a tunnel is connected with a river, due to which the water level is not decreasing and is constant at 70 feet.
The NDRF is working on the rescue operations, however, it is difficult for them to pump out water with two 25 HP pumps. They requested the State Government to give them a minimum of ten 100 HP pumps. The NDRF deployed a team of 70 personnel for the rescue operation, whereas the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) deployed a total of 22 personnel.
Speaking of the chances to rescue the miners, Mr. Singh said, “Miracles do happen. As rescue personnel, we keep our hopes up till the last minute. But practically speaking, in this case, the chances of rescuing the men are very slim. Here, the conditions are much more complicated than the rescue of children who were trapped in the Thailand cave recently.”
The chances of rescuing the miners are very low. The NDRF divers, who went inside the pit, are trained to go below 40 feet of water, hence if they go beyond 40 feet, it may risk their lives and cause issues like nose bleeding.
Conrad Sangma, the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, on Twitter, expressed his concern about the situation.
NDRF and State Government have been continuously working on the rescue ops. scale of the operation is a major challenge as water from a river has entered the mines. GOI was very prompt in sending their best people to help in the rescues ops.. @narendramodi @PMOIndia @KirenRijiju
— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) December 26, 2018
