Body recovered from abandoned coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills

An unidentified body was recovered from an abandoned coal mine in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and police, officials said on Sunday. According to police, information regarding the body was received from the headman of Moolait Bri Sumer village on Friday after the corpse was spotted inside a water-filled abandoned coal mine. Following the information, police conducted a spot inquiry and found the body drowned inside the abandoned mine. However, the body could not be retrieved on Saturday due to the depth of the mine, East Jaintia Hills Superintendent of Police Pankaj Rasgania said. ''A team of police and SDRF reached the site today and retrieved the body at around 11 am,'' the SP told PTI. He said the identity of the deceased could not be ascertained, and an investigation is underway. The district alone has over 22,000 abandoned coal pits, some plunging nearly 200 metres below the earth's surface, many of which remain dangerously exposed without fencing or safety measures, according to official estimates.

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