Rescue efforts continued for a fourth day on Sunday at an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hill district, where an explosion killed 27 people on Thursday, police said.
A search and rescue operation is underway after an explosion at an illegal coal mine site in Thangsku area of Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hill district on Friday (PTI).On Thursday, rescue workers recovered 18 bodies of miners from an illegal mine in Mynsingat-Thangskai area of East Jaintia Hill District. Seven bodies were recovered on Friday and two more on Saturday, taking the death toll to 27.
“National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), search and rescue personnel of Meghalaya Police and local police personnel are engaged in the operation to find the workers trapped in the mine. The exercise will continue on Monday,” said East Jaintia Hills Superintendent of Police Vikas Kumar.
Within hours of the incident on Thursday, the district police arrested two men for allegedly operating an illegal mine using rat-hole mining, a dangerous method that involves digging narrow horizontal tunnels usually three to four feet high to access and extract coal.
The practice, prevalent in parts of Meghalaya, has been officially banned for over a decade.
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Kumar said investigators are looking for five more people responsible for operating the mining site.
“It is important to arrest these people to ascertain how exactly the blast happened, to get details of how many people entered the mine on the day of the incident and how many others may still be inside,” Kumar said.
Based on the statements of the two workers before their deaths and their preliminary investigation, the district police surmised that the incident occurred after a dynamite explosion inside the mine, which appeared to have ignited methane gas in the mine, causing a fire after the explosion.
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Elsewhere in the district, police raided illegal mines and seized detonators, gelatin sticks and illegally mined coal.
“In the last three days, raids at such sites have resulted in the recovery of 204 gelatin sticks, 175 metric tonnes of illegally mined coal and 60 detonators. So far, 30 cases related to illegal coal mining, transportation and coal dump have been registered. Three people have been arrested in this case,” Kumar said.
According to the police, there are around 500 rat holes in the area.
