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Vaccinated for Covid a month ago, Taliye’s hope of recovery buried in landslide
Taliye (Raigad): A small hamlet in Sahyadris, Maharashtra’s Taliye, was looking at life with hope after most villagers were vaccinated against Covid-19 last month but little did they know that another calamity in the form of a landslide following heavy rains will flatten their homes and crush the dreams of a recovery under the slush deposited in the village
Taliye (Raigad): A small hamlet in Sahyadris, Maharashtra’s Taliye, was looking at life with hope after most villagers were vaccinated against Covid-19 last month but little did they know that another calamity in the form of a landslide following heavy rains will flatten their homes and crush the dreams of a recovery under the slush deposited in the village.
According to local administration, there are around 42 houses in the village and most were buried under the soil after a portion of the nearby hillock gave away on Thursday evening.
The locals, with the help from a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the police have so far pulled out 42 bodies with around same number of people still missing.
A nine-month-old and another 11-month-old infant are among those missing. Theirs mothers, according to Sunetra Pawase, a nurse working at a local preliminary health centre, were found dead during the search and rescue operation.
“The entire village was vaccinated last month. We have done two deliveries in this village. Two infants are still missing. I have seen all the small children from the village. There was a small girl in this village who used to come with me while I would visit the village. Yesterday, I found her dead, lying on her stomach which is very painful,” said Pawase.
Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray visited Taliye village on Saturday afternoon when he assured locals of all possible help.
“Sir, we thought we would get all help on second day, but nothing came forward. It’s the third day and search and rescue operation hasn’t picked up pace,” said a youngster, whose sister was missing. The chief minister assured of speedy rescue efforts.
Dr Abhijit Chavan and his wife Dr Bhagyashree were the first to reach the spot to provide relief to victims on Friday. Bhagyashree, who works in the PHC, said she was treating two pregnant women who had recently delivered babies
“The deliveries took place at our hospital and their young ones are missing,” she said. The Chavan couple has been closely connected with the village and the entire village used to visit their clinic for medical check-up. The medicos are known for conducting successful deliveries of patients from the village.
“We have found bodies post which we conducted spot post-mortem. Still many bodies are there and we pray to God that at least one person should be traced alive. It became difficult to identify the bodies. The scene at the spot was horrendous as corpses were found dismembered as hands and legs were strewn apart due to the impact of the gushing rainwater. We did on the spot autopsy and handed over the bodies to their relatives. The bodies were totally decomposed and it is very difficult to get the bodies intact,” Dr Chavan said.
