Hopes of rescuing trapped miners in Assam dwindle, one body recovered

The hopes of saving the people trapped 300 feet under the ground in an Assam coal mine dimmed on Wednesday as they remained missing in the dark, flooded interiors of the quarry and its labyrinth of underground tunnels, with the rescue team retrieving a body on the third day of a frantic operation.

- Utpal Parashar

Hundreds of personnel from the police, navy, army, and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), including divers, continued to be deployed at the site in the northeastern state's Dima Hasao district. According to officials, a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) was sent inside the mine in the morning, which spotted the body of Ganga Bahadur Srestho, a resident of Nepal, at around 85 feet below the surface. Divers were then sent in to bring out the body.

"21 Para divers have just recovered a lifeless body from the bottom of the well. Our thoughts and prayers are with the grieving family... The body recovered from the well has been identified as Sri Ganga Bahadur Srestho from Udayapur district, Nepal," Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a post on X in the morning.