In Maharashtra’s scenic coastal district of Raigad, a hillside settlement of daily wage earners is excavating its dead.Five days after a landslide, 31 bodies have been recovered in Dasgaon, another 13 are still missing. And as the tragedy begins to sink in, it’s not shock but anger that’s driving frantic rescue efforts—at the administration, that, villagers say, has badly let them down.‘‘The administration merely deposited two earth movers on Wednesday, one of which was faulty. A Pocklon machine that could work its way through the slush was provided yesterday, which is why we are still recovering bodies, four days after the incident,’’ Sarpanch Javed Duste said angrily on Saturday evening in the damp government resthouse where crowds of affected families have been camping since Tuesday.The district administration handed out Rs 1,000 yesterday to the families who lost their homes, but little else has been done. ‘‘Food supplies, clothes, utensils, are some of the things the people affected by the landslide urgently need,’’ said the sarpanch.In the long-term, ‘‘new homes will be provided and we will rehabilitate all affected people,’’ K Vatsa, Secretary (Relief and Rehabilitation) told The Indian Express. But battling with the here and now, villagers feel let down by an administration that has not been sensitive enough to provide relatively simple basics.In nearby Jui, where a massive landslide on Monday night buried 43 homes, taking an estimated 100 lives in a mountainside Maratha community, CRPF and Army men working round-the-clock from Wednesday afternoon amidst high mounds of slush had managed to recover 24 bodies by Saturday evening.‘‘The landslide is the biggest in the district, and it is taking us time to recover bodies,’’ said D Lal, the CRPF Commander heading a battalion of 128 personnel. ‘‘My men retrieved 14 bodies yesterday from the nearby Rohangaon village, but it’s clear that the operation in Jui is going to take far longer.’’A few hundred metres from the scene of devastation, the bodies were being cremated after a hurried identification by fellow villagers. The bereaved and survivors of the landslide watched silently from the village school that now houses the shattered community.Helping in the rescue, Vijay Darde—a worker in a Jogeshwari press — arrived in this, his native village, earlier in the week. He said: ‘‘Flooded roads in Mumbai have got so much attention. The administration could do more for the people here.’’
