Indian naval divers on Sunday launched a major operation to try and find 15 men trapped for more than two weeks in a flooded coal mine in the northeast of the country, police said.
An illegal mine 106 meters deep. The workers have been stuck since water from a nearby river spilled on Dec. 13 in the 106-meter deep illegal mine in Meghalaya state. The miners gave no sign of life, but their families cling to the hope that they could find shelter in a pocket of air, while the slow mobilization of relief has caused scandal in the country. "Fourteen navy divers arrived yesterday for scouting," Sylvester Nongtnger, a local police official, told reporters. "They are trying to get inside."
Coal mines banned because of pollution. An Indian court banned wild coal mines in the state of Meghalaya in 2014 after complaints from environmental activists denouncing "serious water pollution", while security conditions were also denounced. But because of recourse to the Supreme Court by landowners and state authorities, this practice has continued: residents are illegally extracting coal from dangerous mines using summary means. They drill holes on the side of the hills and then dig small horizontal tunnels to reach a vein of coal.
Fifteen miners were killed in a similar accident in the same state in 2012. Their bodies were never found. The work of the rescuers was notably delayed by a lack of water pumps and rescue equipment. But the slow pace of relief has been compared on social networks to the exceptional mobilization this summer in Thailand, to save 12 children and their football coach trapped in a cave.