15 Meghalaya Miners Still Trapped
Two weeks have passed
and 15 Meghalaya miners
are still trapped in a coal mine in East Jaintia Hills district. As the rescue
operations continue, NDRF divers reported a “foul smell” on Wednesday. It has
raised concerns that the miners could be dead and the bodies are beginning to
decompose, according to The Indian Express.
However, according to
another NDTV report, the officials at the site said they
are not certain whether the foul smell is of decomposed bodies as it could be
from stagnant water also. The 15 miners have
been trapped since 13 December, after the mine collapsed. The NDTV report
also said that rescue operations were halted on Tuesday. Chief Minister Conrad
Sagma admitted on Wednesday that the rescue efforts had been stopped and that
the state was waiting for high-powered pumps to draw out water from the
mine.
Two low-capacity pumps
used to draw water could not extract enough water for safe rescue operations,
according to NDTV, as water from a nearby river and another abandoned
mine kept flooding the rat-hole mine. The small pumps had to
be shut down as they were ineffective, the National Disaster Response Force
(NDRF) was quoted as saying in the report. Pune-based Kirloskar
Brothers Limited, a firm that had helped rescue the 12 boys of a Thailand
football team in July, 2018, has offered to help in rescue operations... read more:
