SHILLONG: More than 70 days since 15 miners got trapped in a flooded coal mine in the East Jaintia Hills, Navy spotted another body in the shaft on Monday - the fourth to be detected so far."The fourth body was detected at 230 feet in the rat-hole coal mine at 4.32pm (on Monday) with help of an underwater remotely operated vehicle," a senior rescue official said. The illegal rat-hole coal mine at Khloo Ryngksan, flooded by the waters of the Lytein river, is 370 feet deep. "It will be difficult to retrieve the body without complete disintegration," the rescue official added, citing its highly decomposed state.Till now, only one body - that of Amir Hussain from Assam 's Chirang district - has been retrieved. It was detected by the remotely operated vehicle on January 16 and retrieved a week later. On January 26, another body was spotted but slipped away and could not be retrieved. It is yet to be located. The third body was spotted on Saturday night.The Army has also joined in the search operations along with the Navy, the National Disaster Response Force, the State Disaster Response Force and others. Teams from Coal India Limited, Kirloskar Brothers Limited and KSB continue to pump water out of the abandoned mine.Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered that Kirloskar's high-powered pumps be flown in to the site immediately to remove water from the mine. The Supreme Court also issued show cause notice to the owner of the mine, Jrin Chullet alias Krip Chullet, while hearing a PIL.A bench of Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said it is an accepted fact that illegal mining was going on due to which several lives have been lost and asked the Meghalaya government to serve the show cause notice issued to mine owner Jrin Chullet alias Krip Chullet. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on March 12. On February 8, the SC had issued notice to owner of the coal mine saying he was responsible for the illegal mining due to which the mishap took place.Unscientific coal mining in Meghalaya had been banned by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2014, but illegal mining and transportation of coal continues on the sly with heavy toll on human lives and the fragile environment.The Meghalaya government, however, has been continuously trying to get the NGT ban lifted on the ground that it has adversely affected the economy of the revenue deficit state. The state government has paid Rs 1 lakh interim relief to the family members of each of the victims.Home minister James K Sangma had said the operations to search for the miners will continue as per orders of the Supreme Court. He also said the government is yet to get details of the expenses incurred in the operations.

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