During the heavy rains on Sunday, December 1, a family of seven, including five children, were safe inside their house located at the base of a 2,000 feet hillock – Arunachala hill – in VOC Nagar of Tiruvannamalai. When the rains picked up, unbeknownst to them there was a landslide happening at the hillock. On Sunday evening, at around 4.30 pm, mud and rocks entered the residential area in VOC Nagar and a huge boulder weighing close to 80 tonnes rolled down and crushed the family of seven inside their house.
After nearly 20 hours of rescue operations, a rescue team of 170-members recovered their bodies on Monday, December 2. The deceased were identified as Rajkumar (32), his wife Meena (26), their children Gautham (9), and Iniya (7), along with their relatives Maha (12), Vinodini (14), and Ramya (12).
The team which included 35 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was hindered because of the unstable nature of the land. District collector D Baskara Pandian, speaking to mediapersons, had said, “Though the rain has subdued, there are possibilities of boulders tumbling down due to rain earlier. We have evacuated 50 to 80 people from the locality. Three houses were completely damaged in the landslide and a few houses were partly damaged.”
Chief Minister MK Stalin announced a relief amount of Rs 5 lakhs for the family of the deceased and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin visited the landslip spot. He also assured that the state government would formulate a scheme exclusively for the rehabilitation of the victims.
Further, Minister for Public Works, Highways and Minor Ports EV Velu also visited the rain-affected areas and said that Tiruvannamalai had not seen such a heavy rain since 1965. He added that landslides never happened in the Arunachala Hill until now and said that the soil formation in the hill would be studied.
Cyclone Fengal triggered heavy rainfall in Tamil Nadu, with Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts receiving record levels of rain. Visuals from both districts show widespread damage to roads, bridges, and crop fields.