Source: theprint.in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Delhi:<\/strong> Seven arduous months after hopelessly searching for the bodies of 13 miners trapped in an illegal coal mine at Ksan in Meghalaya\u2019s East Jaintia Hills district, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams are now packing their bags to go back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Supreme Court Friday allowed the Meghalaya government to call off the mission to retrieve what remained of the\u00a0bodies of the miners\u00a0trapped in the flooded rat-hole coal mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The catastrophe, in which 15 men were submerged alive when an illegal \u2018rat-hole\u2019 mine was flooded on 13 December 2018, had made national headlines for a few weeks after it occurred, but as repeated attempts to find and retrieve bodies failed over the course of months, even Meghalaya state officials lost hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite all the seeming ingredients for a successful mission, including national media spotlight, there was little to show \u2014 only\u00a0two bodies\u00a0were recovered from the mine till date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of February this year, 10\u00a0specialised divers from the Indian Navy, a contingent of nearly 15 Army officers, three medical technicians on daily call, 70 officials of the NDRF, 15 members of the SDRF and a cameo by a 22-member team from the Odisha Fire Services were engaged in the Meghalaya mine rescue mission \u2014 making it one of the largest experiments in civic cooperation till date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the Navy and the Army had announced their departure in March, the NDRF and the SDRF, which were engaged in the rescue operation from the very beginning, continued to live, eat and sleep on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Santosh Kumar Singh, an assistant commandant of the NDRF was at East Jaintia Hills for 66 days, before other commitments at his headquarters and the realisation that \u201cthere really wasn\u2019t that much left to do\u201d pulled him away from the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tragedy reached closure when Meghalaya\u2019s Attorney General (AG) Amit Kumar pleaded before the apex court for a formal suspension of all operations and a bench comprising Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice B.R. Gavai passed the order to this effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as early as on 4 February, Justice A.K. Sikri of the SC had remarked how it \u201cseem(ed) to be certain that nobody is alive\u201d \u2014 a far cry from the top court\u2019s 11 January order to continue the operation because \u201cmiracles do happen\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking to ThePrint, on 11 February, Additional Superintendent of Police, East Jaintia Hills, Lethindra Sangma had\u00a0said\u00a0\u201csomeone has to call it off\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Families of the trapped miners, in the meanwhile, had already given their consent to call off the rescue operations in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AG Kumar Friday told the media that the Supreme Court allowed the state\u2019s application and permitted it to close the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA request was made by the senior counsel of the petitioner for laying of standard operating procedure (SoP) that can be followed in case of similar eventualities across India,\u201d Kumar added, saying the bench will hear the issue related to the SoP after four weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Bobde and Justice Gavai were hearing a petition which had sought urgent steps to rescue the miners trapped in the rat-hole mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, the Ksan team is signing off, as NDRF officer Singh said, \u201cafter what became the longest and most extensive operation I have ever seen in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Singh also added that rescue officials had realised fairly early on \u2014 within 10 days to two weeks of the tragedy \u2014 that chances of survival for the miners were slim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut we are here to do our duty. Whenever it is a matter of life, then we have hope, and when we know that life has not survived, then we continue out of a sense of humanity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The total number of days spent on the mission is 211.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around Rs 3.5 crore had been spent on the rescue operation till May, East Jaintia Hills Deputy Commissioner F.M. Dopth told reporters Friday. \u201cThe total amount may go up as contractors, suppliers and others will be submitting bills,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coal India Limited (CIL), Kirloskar Brothers and KSB had provided high-powered pumps to help empty the flooded mine of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meba Sukhlain and John Suba, two young locals, had also volunteered to help the stationed personnel from the first day of the operation, trekking through hills on foot so that food and other essential supplies could reach the rescue teams at the pit \u2014 located about 45 kilometres away from the district administration headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe were also waiting for the SC order to close the operation. Why waste public resources,\u201d Dopth wrote on a media WhatsApp group on 29 June.<\/p>\nTeams finally signing off<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Waiting to go home<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n