Girl who died in Wayanad landslide now has 4 families, cutting across religions

WAYANAD: As the toll from the devastating landslides touched 296 on day three of the tragedy on Thursday, Wayanad is witnessing heart-wrenching sights that will haunt if forever. In one such, four families, cutting across religions, have staked a claim for the body of a teen girl, recovered 10 kilometres away in River Chaliyar in Nilambur of neighbouring Malappuram district.

The body of the girl, who slipped into the gushing waters that wiped out the entire valley of Mundakkai and part of the township of Chooralmala in the wee hours of Tuesday, was mangled and tough to identify when brought to the Community Health Centre at Meppadi, Wayanad on Thursday evening. But four families, who had lost hope to see her alive and were eagerly waiting to get hold of her remains, had no doubts and asserted that it was that of their loved one.

Even as one set of ‘relatives’ took the body to the burial ground of a Juma Masjid, the other three families started wailing. The authorities of the hospital at Meppadi had a tough time convincing the relatives that the body would be brought back. With the issue gaining communal colours and threatening to blow out of proportion, Kalpetta MLA T Siddique intervened and convinced the Masjid authorities not to perform final rites as there were three more claimants for the body.

Meppadi panchayat president K Babu told this paper that with many bodies beyond recognition, such confusions were bound to happen. "We've approached the district administration as well as the Chief Minister to ensure a mechanism to conduct speedy DNA tests on the unidentified remains and bodies with more than one claimant," he said.

The authorities have completed the legal formalities of only 189 bodies – 85 men, 76 women and 27 children – of which only 107 were identified. As many as 78 bodies have more than one claimant or no claimants at all as they are beyond recognition. There are also 92 body parts, recovered from various parts and subjected to postmortem.

Army winds up 'rescue' ops, to continue search for bodies

Army officials on Thursday stopped the rescue operations in the devastated villages in Wayanad district, including the most hit Chooralmala and Mundakkai villages. The search operation for the dead would continue with three sniffer dogs of the Army helping the personnel.

Major General VT Mathew, General Officer Commanding (GOC) for Kerala-Karnataka sub-area, informed the visiting 12-member ministerial delegation headed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that the Army has saved every human life trapped in the debris. The Chief Minister, on his part, expressed his gratitude to the Army for saving more than 1,500 villagers trapped in the devastated hamlets, challenging hostile weather.

Over 1,800 personnel from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh forces are helping the Army. This includes Madras Engineering Group (MEG) 120, Defense Security Corps (DSC)- 180, Indian Navy-68, Coast Guard, Territorial Army and Tamil Nadu Fire Force.

Day 4 search with earthmovers crucial

As the Madras Engineering Group of the army has completed the construction of a 190-feet Bailey bridge across the river, day four (Friday) is crucial for the mission as heavy search vehicles including earthmovers and heavy army vehicles would be roped in. The components of the bridge were brought to Kannur by flight from Bengaluru and Chennai, then by road on 15 trucks to Wayanad.

As the bridge across a river, connecting the two villages of Chooralmala and Mundakkai was entirely washed out and heavy rains lashed the hills, it was tough for the Army to take even food, water and rescue tools to the upper reaches of the mountain to the Mundakkai village.

As per the data from Meppadi panchayat, more than 200 houses are yet to be dug out and searched for the victims. Till Thursday, the rescue workers were using manpower to remove the debris and search for the trapped. The army had conducted a trial run across the river with heavy vehicles on Thursday evening.

54 children missing in the landslide

In total, 54 children were hit in the landslide of which the bodies of 25 children were identified and 29 children are still missing.

The District Medical Officer submitted the list of missing children to the district administration. The children were students of Government Primary School, Mundakkai and Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Vellarimala in Chooralmala village.

With rains subsiding in the region, the people are looking forward to the mission for the 240 missing persons, and if anyone survived the days-long odds under the debris, they would be saved.

(By special arrangement)