3 min readAug 1, 2024 05:52 AM IST
First published on: Jul 31, 2024 at 08:49 PM IST
The death toll from the landslides that struck Kerala’s Wayanad district Tuesday has gone up to 174 on Wednesday, as central and state agencies worked alongside local volunteers in a massive search, rescue and relief operation.
As many as 170 people were still missing after the landslides struck villages in the hilly Meppadi Panchayat in the early hours of Tuesday, with people, houses and vehicles either buried in mud or washed away into the swollen river.
The rescue efforts in Mundakkai village, the epicentre of the landslides, were hampered Tuesday because the main bridge leading to it had been destroyed. On Wednesday, personnel of the Army and the National Disaster Response Force built a rope bridge in the area, giving a boost to the efforts to rescue those still stranded on the other side.
A team from the Army’s Madras Engineer Group will install a Bailey bridge by Thursday evening to further ease the movement of rescue workers and relief material. The equipment to set up the 190-foot bridge was flown from Delhi to Kannur airport on Wednesday, and brought to Wayand in 17 trucks.
The Army has moved additional columns to join the rescue effort on Wednesday, and a Coast Guard team has also been deployed. Two helicopters were mobilised to drop relief material into affected areas.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said 1,592 people have been rescued since the landslides hit.
“Efforts are on to get the maximum number of people to safety… At present, the focus is on rescue operations at Mundakkai, and two other villages – Attamala and Chooralmala,” he said.
The CM said the government was looking to deploy a ‘buried object detection system’, and that they had sought the help of experts.
Rescuers are also set to deploy sniffer dogs that are being flown in from Delhi to look for bodies buried in the mud.
Relatives have been queuing up at hospitals, looking for their loved ones, as rescuers brought in injured survivors as well as bodies recovered from beneath the rubble or from the river.
A group of people who survived the landslides by taking refuge at two resorts on the top of Mundakkai hills were rescued Wednesday by Army personnel who used rope to form a human chain to cross over into the cutoff area.
Among the bodies recovered were 48 found in the river Chaliyar, at Nilambur in Malappuram district. They were among the dozens of people swept away in the Iruvazhinji river, which flows through the Meppadi area and merges with Chaliyar further downstream.
A man holds photos of relative who went missing following landslides in Mundakai, Chooralmala area, Wayanad district. (AP Photo) 
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