Meghalaya: Hope fades for miners’ families

The families of 15 miners trapped inside a flooded “rat-hole” mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills have lost hope to see them alive again but state administration has roped in another 14-member team comprising noted hydrologists from Chennai and Hyderabad to join the rescue operations.

Informing that 14-member team includes Sudhir Kumar of Hydrological Investigations Division at National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee are going to join the rescue efforts, sources said that experts are expected to arrive the accident site on Sunday.

More than 120 people are now at the site, including personnel from disaster management agencies and experts from a major state-controlled coal company.

Even after ongoing operation to pump out water for last 15 days, the fate of the miners remains unknown as no blueprint of tunnels, which are now filled with frigid water from the nearby Lytein river, exists.

Some social activists point out that even Indian parliament was in session but parliamentarians failed to find time to bring in a simple reference on 15-trapped miners.

The helpless Justina Dkhar is the mother of two men from the nearby village of Lumthari who were trapped in the mine. She said that her sons, ages 20 and 22, did not normally work in the coal mine but took the job to earn more money ahead of Christmas.

“Now I only hope to retrieve their bodies,” Dkhar told reporters. Her

22-year-old nephew was also trapped in the mine.

Krishna Limbu said it was unlikely that even a miracle would save his brother-in-law, 21-yearold Assh Bahadur Limbu.

■ Activists pointed out that parliament was in session but parliamentarians failed to find time to bring in a simple reference on 15trapped miners.