ROURKELA: In a marathon operation that took 16 hours, rescue personnel retrieved the body of a bulldozer operator trapped under a massive boulder in a dump pit at Kurmitar iron ore mines of the Odisha Mining Corporation under Lahunipada police limits in Sundargarh district on Friday evening.
The operator, Avinash Kerketa (30), had fallen nearly 250 metres into the dump pit during a regular operational activity on Thursday afternoon. Kurmitar iron ore mine is situated around 100 km from Rourkela.
Fire fighters and police launched a search operation but it had to be suspended late at night due to darkness and the hostile terrain. The operation resumed on Friday morning and concluded around 6 pm with the recovery of the body.
Lahunipada IIC Rameshwar Singh said Kerketa was operating the bulldozer on the mountainous surface of the mines where he along with two other operators was routinely pushing rocks and waste materials into the dump pit below. While operating near the edge of the surface around 6 pm, Kerketa lost control of the vehicle which hurtled down the slope towards the base of the dump.
From circumstantial evidence, police suspect, Kerketa either jumped from the falling vehicle or was thrown out before being trapped beneath a massive boulder weighing around one tonne that rolled down simultaneously.
Singh described it as an extremely challenging operation, stating that after rescuers managed to pull the body out from beneath the boulder, they had to carefully carry it uphill on a stretcher through slopes covered with loose rocks and debris. An unnatural death case has been registered. Lahunipada police handed over the body to the family after postmortem on Saturday.
Meanwhile, shortly after Kerketa went missing, his family members, supported by the North Odisha Workers’ Union, staged a protest outside the office of the Kurmitar mines demanding compensation.
Protesters alleged that Kerketa, who was employed by contractor Dharti Mines & Resources Pvt Ltd, had been forced to work long hours, leading to the mishap. The agitation was later withdrawn after the body was recovered and the demands were reportedly settled.