After search operations for more than a month, navy divers have found visuals of a body at a depth of approximately 160 ft to 210 ft inside the mine, through a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), which is suspected to be one of the 15 trapped miners in the flooded rat-hole coal mines in Meghalaya East Jaintia Hills district.
According to reports, the Naval personnel after spotting the decomposed body of one of the miners about 200 ft along the horizontally dug rat-hole, managed to pull it about half way to the bottom of the shaft. Although, the personnel also spotted several skeletons inside one of the rat-hole mines, it was unclear whether those belonged to the missing miners.
However, the body, still unidentified, could not be pulled out of the shaft due to concerns that movement could result in disintegration of the remains.
A team of doctors were rushed to the spot to supervise the rescuers in bringing out the remains, who suggested that no further movement should be made seeing the decomposed state of the body. It may be noted that the body has been brought to the mouth of the mine and will be retrieved according to the doctors advise.
As per sources, due to presence of high sulphur content in the water inside the mines, the bodies were decomposed faster.
The family members of the missing miners have been asked to identify the body.
