Wayanad (Kerala) | Rescuers raced against time under harsh conditions to search for survivors trapped in collapsed buildings, two days after massive landslides struck Kerala's Wayanad district, with the death toll (Unofficial figures) climbing to nearly 300 on Thursday. With above 200 people missing, the toll is expected to rise further.
While some unconfirmed reports suggested 276 fatalities, Kerala Revenue Minister K Rajan confirmed that the landslides have killed at least 190 people. According to the Wayanad district administration, the dead include 27 children and 76 women. More than 225 others have been injured, mostly in the worst-hit areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala, he said.
Rescue efforts have been hindered by a combination of challenges, including treacherous terrain due to destroyed roads and bridges, and a shortage of heavy equipment, making it difficult for emergency personnel to clear mud and huge uprooted trees that fell on houses and other buildings.
Rajan, who is in the disaster-struck region coordinating the rescue efforts, said 1,300 personnel from various agencies and the armed forces carried out joint search-and-rescue operations in the area, braving the rains, winds and difficult terrain and without the help of heavy machinery.
He also said that 9,328 people have been relocated to 91 relief camps in the district.
Of these, 2,328 people from 578 families displaced due to the landslides at Chooralmala and Meppadi have been moved to nine relief camps, he said.
Political leaders, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, among others, visited the displaced people, expressing solidarity with them.
"The first priority is rescuing the victims of the Wayanad tragedy," Vijayan said after an all-party meeting here.
He said the rescue operation, with the coordinated efforts of various forces, elected representatives, officials and voluntary organisations and the local people, will continue.
Efforts will continue to search the disaster-affected area and the river to recover the bodies of missing persons, he said while addressing a press conference.
With the completion of the Bailey Bridge between Chooralmala and Mundakkai, being built by the army, the required equipment for rescue operations can be transported to disaster-affected areas, he said.
Gandhi, a former Congress MP from Wayanad, said the calamity was a "terrible tragedy for Wayanad, Kerala, and the nation."
"We have come here to see the situation. It is quite a painful experience to see that people lost their family members and houses. It's very difficult to speak to people in these circumstances because you really don’t know what to say to them. It's been quite a difficult day for me, but we are going to try and help make sure that the survivors get what is due," he told reporters.
Rajan said the authorities are yet to finalise the count of missing people.
"Initially, we used the voter list to identify the missing persons. But since it does not contain the details of the children, we are now relying on ration cards and other details. We are trying to identify the missing people by checking the ration card details and with the help of ASHA workers and anganwadi workers," he said.
In the landslide-hit areas, rescuers operators had to deal with challenge of moving through waterlogged soil as they searched destroyed homes and buildings for survivors or bodies.
With search operations underway in the calamity-ravaged Mundakkai, they said heavy machinery was required to remove the huge trees that got uprooted in the landslides and buried several houses.
"We are standing on the terrace of a building and a stench is emanating from underneath, indicating the presence of bodies. The building is fully covered with mud and uprooted trees," a rescuer said.
He said that excavators were available for the operations, but they are insufficient for the task.
"Heavy machinery is required to remove the huge trees and carry out search operations in the collapsed buildings. Only then can we make progress in the search operations," he added.
Rajan said the scale of the rescue mission at Mundakkai is massive, as unlike incidents like this where the damaged area is usually limited to one-to-two kilometres, in this case, the destroyed area is vast.
"Now that the Bailey Bridge has been built, we are able to send heavy machinery across to assist in the search-and-rescue operations," he said.
The Madras Engineering Group of the Indian Army on Thursday completed the construction of the 190-ft-long Bailey Bridge that will help connect the worst-affected areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala.
Healthcare professionals are working round the clock, grappling with the distressing of providing critical care to severely injured survivors as well as performing autopsies on disfigured bodies.
The Chief Minister's Office, in a statement, said that 143 bodies and several body parts found from the portion of Chaliyar river flowing through Malappuram have been brought to Wayanad.
So far, 58 bodies and 95 body parts have been recovered from the neighbouring Malappuram district, it said.
The Wayanad district administration said that 279 autopsies, including of body parts, have been completed and as many as 107 bodies have been identified.
It also said that till now 100 body parts have been found from under the debris.
Wayanad (Kerala) | The Madras Engineering Group of the Indian Army on Thursday completed the construction of the 190-ft-long Bailey bridge that will help connect the worst-affected areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Wayanad district which were hit by devastating landslides on Tuesday.
The construction of the bridge started at 9.30 pm on Wednesday and was completed by 5.30 pm on Thursday.
Major General V T Mathew, GOC-Karnataka and Kerala Sub-Area crossed the bridge in his official vehicle after the completion of the construction of the structure, which has a weight-carrying capacity of 24 tonnes.
The Class 24 Bailey Bridge constructed in Wayanad district will connect Chooralmala with Mundakkai over the Iruvanjippuzha River.
"From #Landslide to #Lifeline. When nature knocked down a bridge,#IndianArmy swiftly constructed a more resilient one. True to form, the Army Commander fearlessly led the way across the #BaileyBridge," the Defence PRO said in a post on X.
Following the vehicle of the commander, the Army medical unit and a military truck passed through the bridge, after which it was handed over to the civil administration.
The bridge connecting the two places had washed away in the devastating landslide that happened on Tuesday.
The rescue workers had made temporary wooden bridges between landmasses to cross over and help those stranded there.
However, in the heavy rains on Wednesday, those temporary structures too failed.
The materials for building the bridge were flown into Kannur airport from Delhi and Bengaluru and brought to Wayanad by 17 trucks.
The Army's rescue operation is being coordinated under the leadership of Major General V T Mathew, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Kerala and Karnataka Sub Area.
New Delhi | The Kerala government requested the state's scientific community on Thursday to refrain from sharing their opinions and study reports on the Wayanad landslides with the media.
Tiku Biswal, the state relief commissioner and principal secretary for disaster management, in an order directed all science and technology institutions in Kerala not to undertake field visits to the Meppadi panchayat in Wayanad, which has been designated a disaster-affected area.
In one of the worst disasters in the state's history, heavy rain-induced landslides claimed more than 290 lives in Wayanad.
Scientists from the state and beyond attributed the disaster to a deadly mix of forest cover loss, mining in the fragile terrain and climate change.
"You are requested to direct all science and technology institutions in the state of Kerala not to undertake any field visits to Meppadi panchayat, Wayanad, which is notified as a disaster-affected area," according to Biswal's order to KP Sudheer, principal secretary in the state's science and technology department.
"The scientific community shall be directed to restrain themselves from sharing their opinions and study reports to (the) media. If any study is to be undertaken in the disaster-affected area, prior permission shall be obtained from the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority," it said.