GUWAHATI, Jan 8: The body of one of the nine trapped miners which was pulled out of the flooded rat-hole coal mine at Tini Kilo, Umrangso, in Assam’s Dima Hasao district ahs been identified as that of Ganga Bahadur Srestho, hailing from Udayapur district of Nepal.
“The body recovered from the well has been identified as Sri Ganga Bahadur Srestho from Udayapur district, Nepal,” Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma stated in a post on ‘X’, earlier Twitter.
The body was pulled out of the flooded coal mine by 21 Para Divers of the Navy while rescue teams from the Army, Assam Rifles, NDRF and SDRF are continuing efforts to rescue the other trapped miners although anyone surviving the mishap now appears bleak.
The Navy divers were flown in from Visakhapatnam yesterday while de-watering pumps have been pressed into service since Monday after water gushed into the mine, trapping around 27 miners, 18 of whom could be rescued while around nine other miners, including the one whose body was recovered today morning, were trapped inside the mine.
Chief Minister Dr Sarma is monitoring the rescue operations from the moment the mishap occurred while Minster Kaushik Rai is camping at Umrangso and overseeing the rescue operations on the ground. Minister Rupesh Gowala also reached the coal mine site today.
Assam Police, which had registered a case against the owners of the coal mine, had arrested one person in connection with the incident.
