Among the 2,000 people from various forces such as the Indian Army, Air Force, Fire Force, Kerala Police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and hundreds of volunteers in landslide-ravaged Wayanad in Kerala are Maya, Murphy, and Maggie. The three members of the Kerala police’s dog squad have been assisting the rescue team for the third consecutive day in recovering bodies buried in the soil.
Maya and Murphy are cadaver dogs, also known as Human Remains Detection (HRD) dogs, under the Ernakulam police. The Belgian Malinois are specially trained to detect the scent of decomposing bodies, whether buried or submerged. Maggie, a dog from Wayanad, is trained to locate living humans trapped underground or in building remains. However, no living individuals have been found in the affected areas so far.
On August 2, Maya and Murphy continued to search different parts of Mundakkai, Chooralmala, and Vellarimala in Wayanad, where three devastating landslides struck in the early hours of July 30. Many dead bodies are trapped under the ground or buried in houses that were completely destroyed by the landslide. Since the three landslides occurred over 3 hours across a vast area, it is difficult for the rescue team to know exactly where to dig. This is where the dogs assist them in identifying human bodies.
“Maya has been locating the exact areas. We arrived here on July 30 and started our operation the next day, when the dogs identified two bodies; on August 1, we found 15 bodies while on August 2 we found six bodies; among these one was not a full body, we retrieved just a thigh,” Maya’s trainer Prabath said.
Sniffing through the debris and slush in the rain, Maya and Murphy identified the locations of 23 bodies within the first two days of the search. Once the dogs indicate a location, the rescue team needs to dig out the mud to check for any trapped body.
“On the first day, there were no JCB or Hitachi machines available for the search operation. Everything was done manually. Later, the machines arrived, which made the process a bit easier and faster,” he says.
Alongside the three dogs from the Kerala police, three sniffer dogs from the Indian Army are also on the ground. These sniffer dogs are trained to detect substances such as explosives, illegal drugs, wildlife scat, currency, and blood.
“The soil and fallen trees have accumulated in the areas where the river flows. We found seven bodies within that debris yesterday. There is a possibility of finding more bodies here. We don’t know how much more time we need to spend searching,” Prabath added.
Maya and Murphy have been with the Kerala police for the past four years and have participated in several major operations. Maya was involved in the search operation after the August 2020 Pettimudi landslide in Idukki, which claimed 66 lives, with four still missing. “Maya is trained to identify bodies at a depth of 2 feet. But in Pettimudi, she identified human bodies buried even 10 feet underground. So, we can expect similar efficiency here,” he added.
The landslide in Wayanad has claimed more than 250 lives, including 28 children, while over 200 individuals still remain missing. More than 50 dismembered bodies were found several kilometres away on the banks of the Chaliyar river in Pothukallu panchayat in Malappuram district. According to the government, around 9,328 displaced persons have been housed in 91 relief camps that have been set up in the district.