Mandi Landslide: Search operations continue, officials say 1 person missing
Sources said that in the past, two major landslides had happened at the same place – in 1977 and 1997. It was sheer coincidence that two buses were passing through the vulnerable point when the debris came down Monday. (Express Photo) Sources said that in the past, two major landslides had happened at the same place – in 1977 and 1997. It was sheer coincidence that two buses were passing through the vulnerable point when the debris came down Monday. (Express Photo)
THE LARGE-SCALE search operation by the district administration with the help of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Army, police and Home Guards at Kotrupi continued on Monday, a day after a massive landslide killed at least 46 persons and left several injured. However, no bodies were recovered on day two.
A widow, Mali Devi of Shalooni area in Chamba district, lost her three children, apart from a close relative, Geeta Devi, who were travelling together in one of the two ill-fated buses that were swept away in the landslide.
Mali Devi, who works with the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in Kullu, had lost her husband Anil Sharma in an accident three years ago and in Monday’s tragedy she lost – two daughters, Palak Sharma and Mushkan and a son, Arman. They were accompanied by their aunt, Geeta Devi, to travel to Kullu. The last rites of the four persons were performed Tuesday.
A senior faculty member at Himachal Pradesh University’s regional centre in Dharamshala, Daizy Verma, was in shock as four of her students, one of them Pushap Raj, who met her hours before they boarded a bus to Kullu, died. “Ma’am, I am going to be back within one or two days,” Raj had told her as she saw him packing his bag.
On Sunday, 46 bodies were recovered in a 20-hour search operation, which was suspended late in the evening.
Mandi deputy commissioner Sandeep Kadam, who has been camping at the site during the search operation, said, “There is one person, a schoolteacher, who is missing. No more bodies were found on Monday even as an extensive search of the debris was done by rescue workers using the equipment deployed . We are not going to stop the search operations.”
Additional chief secretary (revenue and disaster management) Tarun Shridar said the deployment of the rescue and search teams would be scaled down? and simultaneously, work on restoration of the National Highway would be taken up. A team of geologists visited the area and the Geological Survey of India has also been approached to do a study of the spot.”
Meanwhile, locals of a village close to the spot have moved to safer places with their cattle and other belongings. The village had survived the tragedy as a hillock blocked the movement of the landslip towards it.
Sources said that in the past, two major landslides had happened at the same place – in 1977 and 1997. It was sheer coincidence that two buses were passing through the vulnerable point when the debris came down Monday. As the Pathankot-Manali National Highway happens to be important from a strategic point of view, the state government has asked the PWD to explore possible means to built an alternative road till the work on restoration of the affected site was completed.
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