As the search operations in the landslide-hit Pettimudi continued on Thursday for the 14th day, bodies of two more deceased persons, including a pregnant woman and a teen girl, were retrieved by the rescue workers. With five people still missing, the total death toll in the disaster has risen to 65.
The bodies of 15-year old Sivaranjini and 26-year-old Muthulakshmi, who was identified to be pregnant, were found kilometres away from the disaster spot. Earlier on Thursday, another 15-year-old, identified as Koushika, was discovered. Only 12 people out of the 82 residents in Pettimudi had managed to escape alive.
It was in the wee hours of August 7 morning that about 30 families of plantation workers living in line houses or ‘layams’ in Idukki’s Pettimudi, were hit by a major landslide, following torrential rain in the region.
The search operations are now centred kilometres away from the landslide hit spot, near dense forest regions. It was from here that three bodies were retrieved. According to the Idukki district administration, the presence of wild animals around the forest area has come as a hindrance to the search operations. On Thursday, the rescue workers had spotted a leopard in the region.
The rescue workers also have the aid of a team from Bharathidasan University in Tamil Nadu, who are assisting them with handling the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), which can detect bodies buried deep on ground. The local people are also actively participating in the search operations, officials said.
Meanwhile, the state Child Rights Commission chairman visited the children who survived the landslide. There are two children who have lost both their parents in the landslide.
Chairman Manoj Kumar KV said that the Commission will ensure the children are given all the necessary aid to continue their education and to get a secured future. He also said that the Commission will intervene to ensure that the state government announced fund is granted to the families of the victims.
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