Kerala landslide: Bleak chances of tracing five missing

As five more missing persons in the Pettimudi landslide near Munnar in Idukki remain untraced even three weeks after the mishap, the district administration is trying to convince their relatives that prolonging the search is now futile.

While 65 bodies have been recovered so far after the landslide hit settlements of plantation workers on August 6 night, a seven-year-old girl, three youths and one middle-aged person are still missing. The search operation was temporarily stopped on Tuesday owing to rough weather and rise in the water level of the nearby river.

District collector H Dineshan told DH that already a meeting with the relatives of the missing persons has been convened and attempts made to convince them that there won't be much use in prolonging the search and the practical difficulties involved.

However, considering the sentiments of the relatives, the search was again carried out at some spots suggested by the relatives. Once the water level of the river recedes, a further search would be conducted. "Afterwards, we will have to call off the search operation," he said.

Idukki MP Dean Kuriakose, who has been directly monitoring the search operations, said that the rescue team had conducted searches at most difficult parts of the river to the maximum extent possible.

Already the NDRF, fire and rescue services and forest department had put in the maximum effort to trace all the missing. Even radars and sniffer dogs were used. Many bodies were traced from about 10 kilometres away from the landslide spot. On Tuesday the search was carried out at a spot in the river about 15 kilometres from the landslide spot, called 'Bhootakuzhi'. Since the areas consisted of slippery huge rocks, experts were engaged for the search.

It may be recalled that at Kavalappra in Malappuram district that witnessed a major landslide last year, eleven persons could not be traced, while 48 bodies were recovered. Hence the government had called off the search and declared those missing dead so that the relatives got the due compensation.