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Grisly Wayanad toll: 190 bodies, 100 body parts; hunt continues
CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also visited the disaster-hit region
Wayanad The devastation caused by landslides in Wayanad has taken a macabre turn, with rescuers now scouring through layers of slush and wrecked homes to retrieve body parts to ascertain the exact toll of the tragedy. Till Thursday, officials found 190 bodies and 100 body parts as the hopes of finding nearly 206 missing people alive waned in the north Kerala district amid stories of grief and despair from the families of the victims.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also visited the disaster-hit region, taking stock of the relief efforts and promising to help in the rehabilitation of scores of people.
“So far, the number of complete bodies found is 190. Additionally, we have retrieved 100 body parts. The number of missing is 206,” revenue Minister K Rajan said.
On ground zero of Kerala’s worst monsoon tragedy since 2018, teams from the army and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) built a 190-foot bailey bridge over the raging Iruvazhinji river, making it possible to press heavy machinery and ambulances into the rescue efforts.
“We need to search the entire area with heavy equipment which can move on the bridge. It will speed up all rescue and retrieval efforts,” VT Mathew, a senior army official in charge of the rescue operations, said.
Sultan MK, 47, a daily wage labourer personified the human cost of the disaster — losing 26 members of his family, 16 of them still missing.
“The river was constantly rising. I told my wife and three kids to pack some clothes and headed to a relative’s home five kilometres away. One of my relatives was also undergoing a surgery so I left for the hospital...In all, we have found 10 bodies. There are 16 more to go, he said.
Days of ceaseless rain precipitated two landslides within three hours in Wayanad early on Tuesday, wiping out most of Mundakkai and Chooralmala villages, decimating public infrastructure in the remote villages nestled in the Western Ghats that survived largely on tourism and tea plantations, and leaving thousands marooned. The swelling waters of the Iruvazhinji river that courses through the two villages compounded the disaster and consumed settlements along its banks.
The rescue teams struggled against the treacherous terrain as continues rain, thick mud, slippery grounds, and swollen rivers hampered their operations.
Another Rescue worker’s quote
Experts said the disaster, one of several that have ravaged Kerala in recent years, may have been due to the imminent impacts of the climate crisis, and worsened by soil erosion. They also pointed out that recommendations to include the region in the top tier of eco-sensitive zones were ignored and that several parts of the fragile Western Ghats were also excluded.
Authorities said they were not expecting any more survivors and were focussing on retrieving the bodies. There was no information on the number of tea-plantation workers staying in makeshift houses made of clay, wood and tin that were completely flattened by the landslides.
CM Vijayan, who visited the landslide site on Thursday and chaired an all-party meetings at the district collectorate in Kalpetta, said: “The army has done an exemplary job. The officer who headed the operations of the army has informed the government that all those, who could be rescued from the landslide site, have been brought to safety. No one else is remaining.”
He added that the government will now focus on rehabilitating those affected. “The Rescued people are temporarily shifted to camps. Rehabilitation work will be done at the earliest. The most important thing is giving psychological support to the survivors. We have to avoid the spread of an epidemic,” he said after the meeting.
Vijayan said the rescue efforts were likely to continue given the scale of the disaster. “This rescue attempt is not something that can be resolved in a short period of time. As of now, 12 ministers are camping in Wayanad. Now the all-party meeting has decided that four ministers will camp here to coordinate the rescue operations,” Vijayan said, adding that revenue minister K Rajan, forest minister AK Saseendran, PWD and tourism minister PA Mohamed Riyas, and SC/ST department minister O R Kelu will camp in the district.
Former Wayanad MP Rahul and Congress’s candidate for the bypoll to the seat Priyanka, reached Chooralmala donning translucent blue raincoats and were briefed by officials about the rescue operations.
“This is a huge tragedy...Today I feel how I felt when my father died. Here, people have not lost just a father, they have lost their brothers, sister, parents and their entire families. We should all stand with them,” Rahul said.
He added that the tragedy should be declared a narural disaster considering the scale of devastation.
“To me, this is a national disaster for sure. Let’s see what the government says. This is not the time to talk about political issues. People require help here. They are in shock and they require medical assistance,” he said.
Priyanka echoes similar sentiments, saying the pain people in the area were experiencing was unimaginable.
“We are here to help them and to give as much support and comfort as we can.” she said.
US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin extended their condolences over the tragedy.
“Our prayers are with the victims of this tragic event, and we mourn with the families who have lost loved ones. We commend the bravery of the Indian service members and first responders supporting the complex recovery effort,” Biden said in a statement.
The Russian Embassy in India in a post on X said: “President of #Russia Vladimir Putin sent a condolence message to President of #India Droupadi Murmu & Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi over the tragic consequences of the landslides in #Kerala.”
