Raigad landslide: ‘We heard mala vachva, mala vachva… saw a man under a collapsed house…’
Pardhi, who worked as a labourer in nearby areas, lost his parents and brother. According to Pardhi, he heard a loud bang when he was surfing his phone, and before he could react, their house collapsed.
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Family members of people trapped under rubble wait for news of rescue after a landslide washed away houses in Raigad district, western Maharashtra state, India, Thursday, July 20, 2023. (AP) Parshuram Nirguda, a resident of a Varose village in Thakurwadi — a two-hour Trek from Irshalwadi — said that he received a call around 11pm Wednesday from a relative that there was a landslide at Irshalwadi, where his wife’s family and many of their relatives lived.
“The moment I received the call, 7-10 of us left our homes with torches to the village for rescue work. The authorities were also alerted. We reached around 1am. My in-laws’ home was at the edge of the village. Once we reached there, we immediately heard a man scream, ‘mala vachva, mala vachva (save me)’. We saw a man under a pile of wooden sheets which was part of the house that collapsed. He was my wife’s uncle, Yashwant Dhore,” Nirguda said.
While some were pulling out Dhore from the rubble, Nirguda said he went ahead using torches to find his in-laws. “I began screaming, asking if anyone was around. I found my brother-in-law, Pravin Pardhi. He was trapped under the collapsed home,” Nirguda said. Both Pardhi (21) and Dhore (37) were rescued, he said, adding it took around 30-40 minutes to clear the rubble and bring them out.
Pardhi, who worked as a labourer in nearby areas, lost his parents and brother. According to Pardhi, he heard a loud bang when he was surfing his phone, and before he could react, their house collapsed. He said he saw his family members being struck by huge stones that fell in the landslide. Dhore had his wife and son staying with him.
Nirguda said that it was still pouring and they thought it would be risky to continue being at Irshalwadi and began walking down the hill. “We are used to trekking to the village even during medical emergencies, including taking women in labour to hospitals. We brought Pravin down on our back, while Yashwant was carried on a stretcher by fire personnel,” Nirguda said.
The two were first taken to a primary health centre at Chowk and then brought to MGM Hospital in Panvel for further treatment. While Dhore has a hip injury, Pardhi suffered head injuries. Hospital authorities said that they are stable and out of danger and would be discharged after 24-hour observation.
Nirguda said that there was just a mount of mud where the village of 50-55 families once stood. “We could not see anything. There was just some iron and wooden sheets on one side, rest of the village was just nowhere to be seen under the rubble,” he said adding that the village mostly had tribal families either employed as labourers in nearby villages or involved in providing food to trekkers climbing Irshalwadi.
“The women would form groups and cook breakfast or lunch for the trekkers as this was the last village before the peak of Irshalwadi,” Nirgunde said.
Sanket Jadhav, who had employed Bhagwan, his father Hari and their family as farm labourers, said, “They stay with us for eight months of the year, especially during the monsoon. They wanted to go home so I dropped them at the village Tuesday evening. I heard last night and frantically began calling Hari and Bhagwan. I managed to speak to Bhagwan. He said he ran after hearing a loud bang and was helped by his father. They also managed to rescue a few others but were unable to bring out everyone.”
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