Wayanad landslide toll rises to seven after one more body found; one still missing

Wayanad (Kerala), Jul 10 (PTI) One more body was retrieved from the Wayanad landslide site on Friday, taking the death toll in the disaster to seven, district officials said. The recovered body was identified as that of Rakesh Guchait, a surveyor from West Bengal, the officials said. They said his body was retrieved from near the Meenakshi bridge and would be taken to Vythiri Taluk Hospital for a postmortem. After that, the body would be taken to Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital for embalming before being handed over to the family. Vikram Rana, a construction manager from Himachal Pradesh, is still missing. State Electricity Minister Sunny Joseph said the search for Rana was underway and that he had spoken to the man’s brother, who expressed satisfaction with the government’s efforts. The minister, who visited the landslide site, said efforts would be made to help those evacuated to relief camps return to their homes. He also said the government took immediate steps to coordinate search and rescue operations right after the disaster, with ministers T Siddique and A P Anil Kumar and then Chief Minister V D Satheesan reaching the area by helicopter to review the measures taken. “Only one more person remains to be found. The rest of the missing persons have been found. Steps have also been taken to quickly conduct postmortems on the bodies, embalm them and send them to their respective states. Steps have also been taken to ascertain the reasons for the disaster,” he said. The minister claimed that, in this case, the required studies had not been carried out and the necessary precautions had not been taken despite the environmental conditions. “The CM has already said that these aspects would be looked into,” he told reporters. IUML supremo Sayyid Sadik Ali Shihab Thangal, who visited the disaster site, told reporters that development was necessary, but it should take into account both people and the environment. “Problems arise when we fail to take care of people and the environment in our haste for development. That should not happen,” he said. He said the government was going to carry out a serious investigation into the reasons for the disaster. Several teams of National Disaster Response Force personnel, fire force officials and police officers began search operations early in the morning on the fourth day after the disaster, using heavy earthmovers to clear the mud. A landslide occurred on July 7 at the site of the Anakkompoyil-Meppadi tunnel project, which is intended to connect Wayanad and Kozhikode districts. PTI HMP SSK