The death toll in Tuesday’s landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad district rose to 221 on Sunday, a day on which eight unidentified bodies were buried at a plantation in Meppadi panchayat after an all-religion prayer.
About 1,300 uniformed personnel and 1,700 volunteers conducted extensive searches for bodies in the affected areas with the help of excavators and other equipment. They recovered two bodies on Sunday.
Eight unidentified bodies were buried Sunday after DNA samples were taken from them. These would be matched with the DNA samples collected from close relatives of missing persons – a process which began on Sunday after a counselling session.
Around 200 people are still missing since the landslides, which took place in the early hours of Tuesday. The departments of Local Self Government and Civil Supplies have initiated surveys to ascertain the details of the missing.
Among the 221 bodies recovered so far was one of a migrant worker from Bihar – Pooja Kumari Devi, from Pojha village in Bihar’s Vaishali district. Three other migrant workers, also from Bihar, were among the missing. They were Sadhoo Paswan, Ranjith Kumar, and Bijinesh Paswan.
The worst-hit villages – Chooralmala, Attamala, and Mundakkai – have large plantations where migrant labourers work. The four from Bihar were working in those plantations.
Officials of Kerala’s Labour Department said that around 380 interstate migrants – including workers and their families – have been lodged in relief camps following the landslides.
“All the relief camps are run by the state government and they (the migrants) have been taken care of,” sources said.
The plantations also employ local workers, many of whom have died in the landslides. “Our data shows that 11 local people employed by a major plantation have died. Moreover, 48 dependents of the estate workers are either missing or dead. In another estate, one worker has died and three others are missing,” officials said.
Kerala Revenue Minister K Rajan, who is coordinating relief activities, said more searches will be held after comparing maps of affected villages before and after the landslide. This will help ascertain the amount of debris in a place before conducting further searches there, he said.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, called on Sunday to console two children who lost both their parents and several relatives.
Lavanua, a class 7 student, had lost both her parents, her brother and six other close relatives. Another school student, Muhammed Hanni, lost both parents, two siblings and the family of an uncle.
The Congress leaders had visited landslide-hit areas and relief camps last week, and offered their support to those affected.
Click here to join The Indian Express on WhatsApp and get latest news and updates
[ad_2]
Source link
