Shillong, January 18: After more than a month, the body of one of the 15 trapped miners in the illegal coal mine in Meghalaya was pulled out by the Navy divers on Thursday. The search operations to look for the other trapped miners is still underway. However, the family members of the trapped miners urged the rescue agencies to extract the dead bodies anyhow as per the Supreme Court order so that they can give them a decent burial. The body was detected 32 days after the miners got trapped inside the mine on 13th December 2018. What Is Rat-Hole Mining? 15 Meghalaya Miners Trapped in Illegal Mine Waits for Help From Government.

According to reports, experts believe that the bodies of the trapped miners could be retrieved only after it is disintegrated. For this, the district authorities sought the consent of the family members of the trapped miners on whether the body could be taken out from the mine. After skeletons were spotted by the Navy team, the sources said the water inside the mines has high Sulphur content which can decompose the bodies very fast. Miners Trapped in Meghalaya's Illegal 'Rat-Hole' Mine Feared Dead.

Reports inform that divers of the Indian Navy used an underwater ROV (remotely operated vehicle) at a depth of about 160 feet in a rat-hole mine to look for the miners. “The body will be extracted under the supervision of doctors,” said a Navy spokesperson in a tweet. Meghalaya Mining Tragedy: One Body Recovered, Rescue Operation Continues to Find Other Trapped Miners.

According to a report by IANS,  the rescuers showed the family members the video footages of a dead body stuck inside a coal mine in a computer (underwater ROV). "We don’t know whose body it is. We want the government to follow the Supreme Court order to get the bodies out of that coal mine,” said Malik Ali, brother of Munirul Islam, who is among those trapped inside the mine. Ali further added saying that they want his body back so that they can give him a decent burial.

On December 13 last year, 15 miners were trapped in an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Lumthari village of East Jaintia Hills district 13 after water from a nearby river gushed in. However, five miners managed to escape and alerted the people about the tragedy at Ksan village, about 130 km from Shillong.  Several agencies including the Navy, NDRF, Air Force, National Disaster Response Force, Odisha fire service have been pressed into service for more than a month now to look for the trapped miners in the coal mine. 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 18, 2019 11:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).