Shillong, January 23: Efforts to pull out the disintegrated body of one of the miners from inside a 370-foot-deep coal mine in Meghalaya bore no result as the body slipped from the jaw of the Navy’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The ROV has been under water since January 16, reports said. According to a report by Hindustan Times, multi-agencies are struggling to relocate the body of the miner. The report further informs that the body, after slipping from the jaw of the machine, has fallen somewhere on the main shaft, which has around 170 feet of water. Meghalaya Mining Tragedy: Bodies ‘Falling Apart’ as Rescue Operations Continue, Families of Miners Demand Decent Burial. 

On Tuesday, efforts to pull out the decomposed body of one of the miners resumed despite the suspension order by Meghalaya government. The state government suspended the operation as it was becoming an impossible task for the rescuers as the decomposed body parts started falling apart. One Body Recovered, Rescue Operation Continues to Find Other Trapped Miners.

According to an official involved in the rescue operation,  the body slipped and fell to the main shaft of the mine while it was being pulled out from the rat hole. “The body is somewhere in the main shaft now. Since around 4:30 pm when the body was pulled out, till about 10 pm it could not be located again,” the official was quoted by HT. What Is Rat-Hole Mining? 15 Meghalaya Miners Trapped in Illegal Mine Waits for Help From Government.

On January 21, the Centre told the Supreme Court that it is not abandoning the operation to rescue 15 miners trapped for more than a month inside an illegal rat-hole coal mine. On January 16, Navy's remotely operated vehicle (ROV) had detected a body at a depth of 210 feet in the flooded mine. The state government in its status report told the top court that all efforts were being made to retrieve it but could not be completed as the body parts started disintegrating.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 23, 2019 12:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).