Miner's body floats out

DHANBAD, FEB. 5. The body of one of the 38 trapped miners today floated out during dewatering operations at the Bagdihi mines, but the possibility of finding survivors was not ruled out even 76 hours after the accident, the Directorate-General of Mine Safety chief said.

``A body was discovered from the adjacent Jairampur colliery side during dewatering operations this morning, but our hopes have not entirely faded,'' the DGMS director, Mr. R.L. Arora, said. ``According to calculations from our map of the underground area, some miners were working at a higher level in the Bagdihi mine on Friday when water rushed in. These miners could have taken shelter and may be alive as the navy divers were not able to access these areas on Sunday.''

``The mission of the Navy divers was not a futile one therefore,'' Mr. Arora said. ``The five-member diving team from Mumbai and the six-member team from Vizag, both from the Navy, will undertake one, possibly two missions, today to reach areas still unexplored. They are jointly working out strategy before diving into the flooded mine.''

Mr. Arora said 16 million gallons of water swept into the Bagdihi mine from Jairampur, but only 10 million gallons submerged the mineshaft and the rest flowed out. ``Of this two million gallons have been pumped out till this morning.'' ``The water which entered the `drift' (inclined tunnel) was 16.5 m, but vertically it may be 3.3 m,'' he said. With the water receding, more and more areas were likely to be accessible for the rescue teams.

The General Manager, Lodna Colliery, Mr. P.K. Sinha, who is coordinating the dewatering operations, said 12 pumps were working to drain out the water. ``If the pumps work round the clock, the water level will go down sufficiently for rescue teams to venture in.''

Meanwhile, Mr. Amit Prakash, leader of the diving team from Mumbai, said, ``We are used to diving in oceans, but this is the first time we have been inside a mine.'' On what he and his team discovered on Monday, he said, ``We found no airpockets and no sign of life.''

Tension ran high at the disaster site as agitated relatives, upset over a report carried by a TV channel that 10 miners had already been rescued, chased away mediapersons from the site.

At least three to four TV cameramen were also manhandled by the mob.

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