Divers recover a body from flooded coal mine in Assam, many still trapped, hope fades for survivors
Informing that Srestho, hailing from Rampur in Nepal’s Udaypur district, was found 85 feet deep inside the mine, officials said that the primary challenge in the rescue operation is the water levels inside the mine, saying that it has a depth of 200 feet. Another challenge is the lack of adequate equipment to pump out the water
Guwahati: After 48-hours of search, deep divers from the Indian Army and Assam Rifles on Wednesday succeeded in retrieving a body of Ganga Bahadur Srestho, one of the nine miners trapped in a flooded rat-hole coal mine in Kalamati, Umrangso.
Informing that Srestho, hailing from Rampur in Nepal’s Udaypur district, was found 85 feet deep inside the mine, officials said that the primary challenge in the rescue operation is the water levels inside the mine, saying that it has a depth of 200 feet. Another challenge is the lack of adequate equipment to pump out the water.
Apart from it the divers said that the extremely poor visibility caused by murky water and the pitch-black interiors of the mine was making it difficult for them to retrieve the bodoes of trapped miners . “It is too difficult to identify the miners due to poor visibility. Our eyes are burning, and we rely on touch to identify bodies,” the officials said quoting the experience of divers engaged in rescue operations.
Officials said that the deep divers who went inside said, “We could not see anything as it was too dark, we identified it by just touching it by hands. And as there is a channel inside the hole we couldn’t see any other body. We are trying hard to identify.”
The Navy has also deployed Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to aid in the operation, officials said. These vehicles will survey the mine’s interior to locate the remaining trapped miners. The rescue effort involves over 100 personnel from the Navy, Army, NDRF, and Assam Police, officials said on Wednesday.
Pointing out that they are working in shifts, officials said that cranes are used to lower divers into the treacherous mine.
Minister of mines and minerals, Kaushik Rai, who has been monitoring the operation since Monday night, said that the ONGC pumps are being deployed to expedite the dewatering process.
Assam chief minister Himanata Biswa Sarma who was also monitoring the rescue operations said that the mine "appears to be illegal", and that the police have arrested one person in connection with the incident.
''The police have registered an FIR under Umrangso PS Case No: 02/2025, citing Sections 3(5)/105 BNS, r/w Section 21(1) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, to investigate the incident. Prima facie, it appears to be an illegal mine. One Punish Nunisa has been arrested in connection with the case," the chief minister said in a social media post.