Manipur landslide death toll reaches 48; 14 still missing
One more body was recovered from the debris. The 14 missing people include 2 Territorial Army personnel and the members of two families from Marangching village in Manipur
The death toll of the June 29 landslide at a railway construction site in Manipur’s Noney district rose to 48 till Wednesday evening after one more body was recovered from the debris, officials said.
The landslide, said to be the first of such magnitude in the state’s history, hit the railway construction camp at Marangching part 5 areas, about 75 km west of the state capital, after the midnight on June 29. It also hit 107 Territorial Army (TA) camps of the Indian Army, deployed at the area for protecting the construction site. An search and rescue operation has been going on for the last seven days.
“We’ve recovered one more body around 3.30pm today,” a senior state government official monitoring the situation said on Wednesday, adding that the operation will continue.The impacted area, according to rescue officials, is spread over roughly 1km.
Meanwhile, another official informed that the recovered body from Ijai River in the day’s search has been identified as one Umesh Lama of 107 Territorial Army.
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13 more bodies are yet to be traced.So far, there is no report of recovering the bodies of the members of two families from Marangching village part 4 and part 5.
Among the missing are 29-year-old Kabamgai, his wife and one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. The family from Marangching Part 4 used to run a shop at the railway construction camp.
Till Tuesday evening, 47 bodies out of 79 confirmed victims,were recovered while 18 injured persons were rescued and referred to hospitals for treatment. Out of the total bodies recovered, 28 are those of Territorial Army personnel while 14 others including 2 Territorial Army personnel are still missing.
Among the 18 injured persons who were rescued from ground zero on the first day of the search,seven of them are presently undergoing treatment at the Assam Rifles multi-speciality hospital at Mantripukhri on the outskirts of Imphal.
Meanwhile, Manipur water resource and relief & disaster management minister, Awangbow Newmai, who continuously checked and supervised the ground zero of the landslide affected areas, visited again on Wednesday at the landslide area and chaired a review meeting with the officials stationed there.
The Noney district authority is currently closing Tupul to Noney district headquarters stretch of the National Highway 37 even though the accumulated debris along the highway was cleared on Wednesday.The movement of heavy vehicles on the route has been restricted following the falling of rocks.