Wayanad landslides: Mass burial held for unidentified victims

A mass burial was held in Wayanad on Sunday late evening for the mortal remains of the unidentified people who lost their lives in the landslides.

As rescue operations in landslide-hit areas of Wayanad district continued for the sixth day on Sunday, authorities intensified efforts to recover bodies and also prepared a mass grave for unidentified remains, amid discussions in the state on donations to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund and whether to classify the natural calamity as a 'national disaster'.

On Sunday, more personnel and equipment were deployed in areas where the likelihood of finding bodies is high, and a drone-based Intelligent Buried Object Detection System was used to identify locations where bodies might be buried deep under huge boulders or logs.

Stepping up the rescue operations, hundreds of personnel from various forces, including the NDRF, K-9 Dog Squad, Army, Special Operations Group, Madras Engineering Group, Police, Fire Force, Forest Department, Navy, and Coast Guard were deployed in the disaster-struck areas. According to State Revenue Minister K Rajan, till date 221 bodies and 166 body parts have been recovered.

with PTI inputs