Wayanad, 1 August

The devastating landslides in Wayanad have killed 173 people and left about 200 injured, and two days after the tragedy struck this hilly district, rescue teams are racing against time to trace the missing people and struggling to continue the rescue efforts in challenging terrain without heavy machinery to uncover debris and buried victims.

As rescuers work tirelessly to clear the rubble, there are fears of a surge in fatalities. As many as 173 people have died and over 200 injured in the massive landslides, the district administration said on Thursday. The dead include 23 children and 70 women.

Further, 221 people were admitted to hospitals from the disaster-hit areas and of them 91 are still under treatment.

According to the government's official estimate on Wednesday evening, 191 people were missing. Official sources indicate the actual number may be higher.

State Revenue Minister K Rajan, who is in the disaster-struck region coordinating the rescue efforts, said the authorities are yet to finalise the number of missing people. "Initially, we used the voter list to identify the missing persons. But since it does not contain the details of the children, we are now relying on ration cards and other details. We are trying to identify the missing people by checking the ration card details and with the help of Asha workers and the anganwadi workers," he told reporters.

In landslide-hit areas, rescue operators are battling challenges including waterlogged soil, as they search through destroyed homes and buildings for survivors or bodies.

With search operations underway in the calamity-ravaged Mundakkai, rescue workers said heavy machinery was required to remove the huge trees uprooted in the landslides that also buried several houses. "We are standing on the terrace of a building and a stench is emanating from underneath, indicating the presence of bodies. The building is fully covered with mud and uprooted trees," a rescue operator said.

He said that excavators were available for the operations, but they are insufficient for the task. "Heavy machinery is required to remove the huge trees and carry out search operations in the collapsed buildings. Only then can we make progress in the search operations," he added.

Rajan said the rescue mission at Mundakkai is a massive one, as usually an incident like this will be limited to one-two kilometres. In this case, the disaster has struck a massive area. "The bodies were recovered from the Chaliyar river at Pothukal (in Malappuram district). That shows the huge impact of this incident," the minister said.

The Pothukal area of Chaliyar River is around eight kilometres from Mundakkai. Even as the rescue operations are progressing, there are no exact details of the number of workers from the nearby tea estate, which was also affected.

Sources from Mundakkai said there were migrant workers staying at the quarters of the tea estate that was washed away. "We are not sure whether they had shifted to some safer place or they were hit by the landslide," a local said.

Information regarding the migrant workers is not available, as the tea estate manager is also missing, the residents said.

According to Rajan, currently over 1,600 rescue workers, including the Army, Navy, NDRF, the police, Fire and Rescue among other forces are in the landslide-hit region. "Apart from them, there is an equal number of locals and other rescue workers who are familiar with the locality helping the operations. A total of over 3,000 people are working tirelessly to find the missing persons," Rajan said.

Doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals are working round the clock, grappling with a distressing situation that involves providing critical care to severely injured survivors and performing autopsies. "Until 7am today, we have completed 256 autopsies, which include body parts as well. So, it is not 256 full bodies, but also includes body parts. We have handed over 154 bodies to the district administration," State Health Minister Veena George said.

She explained that autopsies have been performed on bodies that were swept away by the river and recovered from the Pothukal area in Malappuram district. Speaking about the traumatic situations faced by health workers, the minister revealed that over 100 autopsies were performed on Wednesday night. Cadaver dogs are being used by rescuers to locate dead bodies.

Amidst all the destruction and gloom, there emerged a heart-warming story of a woman from Idukki, offering her breastmilk to infants in need in the affected areas. The woman, her husband and two children, aged 4 years and four months, have already left for Wayand from their home in the central Kerala district. Speaking to the media, she said, "I am a mother of two small children. I know how it must be for children without their mothers. That is what prompted me to take this decision."