Kerala faced its most severe natural disaster in the hilly Wayanad district early Tuesday, as a series of catastrophic landslides triggered by heavy rain resulted in at least 120 fatalities, with 98 individuals reported missing. Approximately 160 people are receiving treatment in hospitals within the district, while rescue efforts persist to locate the missing and evacuate those stranded, officials reported.
Churalpara, Velarimala, Mundakayil, and Pothukalu are the worst-affected areas. Residents who managed to escape are devastated at the destruction of hundreds of homes.
There are many tearful stories the survivors narrate. One man, tearfully, recounted how helplessly he watched his mother and sister being swept away by the landslide, while he clutched a window for safety. A woman expressed her despair over her missing sister and three children, saying, "We were together last night, and now I have no idea where they are."
Kunjumohammed, visibly upset, said, "I have lived in Mundakayil for the past 24 years, and this hospital is filled with people from my area. My house and my daughter's house are both gone."
One local from Pothukalu described it as the worst tragedy that has ever befallen Wayanad, citing the uncertainty over the final death toll because this area is still being ravaged by landslides.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the scale of the disaster was akin to many of the victims being unsuspecting people who were caught napping. In Malappuram district, 16 bodies were retrieved from the Chaliyar river, while dismembered body parts too were recovered. A rescue team led by a Lt Colonel used a ropeway set up by the Army to save people trapped in the Mundakayil market area..
"The first landslide hit at 2 a.m., followed by another at 4:10 a.m. The road linking Mundakayil to Churalpara has been washed away, and the river in the affected area has split into two directions," Vijayan added.
The Chief Minister noted receiving support calls from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, and West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose. Stalin dispatched a team of disaster relief personnel and medical staff led by two IAS officers to assist in the rescue efforts.
Contributions to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund have picked up after the tragedy. Vijayan exhorted the people not to visit the disaster site to enable the rescue operations to proceed unhampered.. He appealed to those who are willing to help by coordinating with the district authorities arranging the relief work. As many as 45 relief camps have been opened in the affected areas, housing over 3,600 people.
The bodies of only 48 among the 120 dead could be identified and distraught relatives are searching for missing loved ones.
Even though Chief Minister Vijayan has expressed apprehensions about the feasibility of continuing rescue operations beyond daylight, teams comprising all three defence forces, NDRF, police, fire services, and numerous volunteers are relentlessly working to rescue those trapped..
Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan, who visited the affected area, urged Vijayan to forgo post-mortems to spare survivors additional anguish.
Meanwhile, five cabinet ministers from the Vijayan government are in Wayanad overseeing rescue and relief operations, and the state has declared two days of mourning.
PM Modi has dispatched Union Minister of State for Fisheries, George Kurian, to Wayanad for the coordination of rescue efforts.
The disaster was raised in the Lok Sabha in the on-going Budget session, with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, a former MP from Wayanad, demanding speedy rescue operations and more compensation to the victims. He also asked the Centre to map landslide-prone areas in Wayanad and the Western Ghats, saying an action plan has to be readied on how the growing occurrence of natural disasters in this ecologically-fragile region would be dealt with.
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