/Thiruvananthapuram
Rescuers retrieved the body of the 26-year-old engineer, Rahul Sharma, from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi on Thursday. He was one of the three whose remains were recovered from near the tunnel project in Kerala’s Wayanad, an official at the disaster control room said.
The other two victims were identified as Azharuddin Ansari, 32 from Uttar Pradesh and Mohd Imran Khan, 30, from Bihar. With the recovery on Thursday, the toll in the mudslide rose to six. Two people were still missing.
Sharma’s father reached Wayanad on Wednesday in the hope that he would be rescued alive.
According to Rahul’s family, he and his wife Kalpana had moved to Wayanad after getting married in February this year.
“On Thursday morning, I traced his body near the accident site, following which we informed the rescue team. It is an extremely difficult time for all of us. Losing our son in such a tragic manner, just a few months after his marriage, is heartbreaking,” Ramveer Sharma, Rahul’s maternal uncle, told HT.
The disaster struck on Tuesday in Kalladi when the debris, accumulated as part of the excavation works of the tunnel on the Meppadi side, slid down under the force of heavy monsoon rains. The mudslide swept away several temporary shelters housing labourers, a house, and a church.
{{/usCountry}}The disaster struck on Tuesday in Kalladi when the debris, accumulated as part of the excavation works of the tunnel on the Meppadi side, slid down under the force of heavy monsoon rains. The mudslide swept away several temporary shelters housing labourers, a house, and a church.
{{/usCountry}}Officials said Ansari was a surveyor and Khan was employed as an excavator operator at the project site.
“Ansari’s body was retrieved first on Thursday by rescue personnel from an area near the Meenakshi bridge. Subsequent searches from an area below the bridge and close to the river banks led to the bodies of Sharma and Khan being found. The searches have stopped today. They will continue tomorrow,” said a district administration official.
The three bodies were identified by victims’ family members who had arrived in Wayanad.
Among the two missing are project manager Vikram Rana, 59, a resident of the Fatehpur area in Kangra district. His family members, including his elder brother, have reached Wayanad and are waiting for news from the rescue teams.
“We have been in Wayanad since Wednesday, waiting for our brother. Our family is devastated, but we are still hopeful. We are a joint family, and we feel incomplete without him,” said his elder brother, Kulwant Rana.
Agriculture Minister and local MLA T Siddique, who is overseeing the rescue operations, said favourable weather conditions on Thursday played a big role in finding the bodies of those missing.