Rescue operations in Wayanad likely to go for weeks
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visits the landslides-affected Chooralmala in Wayanad on Thursday to assess the ongoing rescue operations.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The rescue operations in Wayanad, where massive landslides have claimed about 200 lives so far and left hundreds missing, will take at least three weeks to complete as per the current pace of operation, according to senior government sources. The State will soon press an IBOD (Intelligent Buried Object Detection) technology to detect people trapped under the debris. Already, five sniffer dogs have been brought to the place as part of the search operation.
These dogs are very effective tools at disaster sites to detect human bodies or mangled bodies trapped under the debris. The construction of a temporary Bailey bridge in the severely affected Chooralmala area by the Indian Army’s engineering unit is crucial in restoring connectivity and facilitating rescue operations. However, it may take at least two to three weeks to complete the operations, perhaps a month, given the scale of destruction and magnitude of the debris flow, said the sources.
The general principle in the rescue operation is to meet the emotional requirements of the affected people. For instance, it took 19 days to complete the rescue operations at Kavalappara in Malappuram district, where a fatal landslide in 2019 had claimed 59 lives. Even after the 19-day rescue operation, a person who lost his son in the landslide insisted that the rescue work has to be carried forward until the body of his son is retrieved. The State government then provided a soil excavator and required staff as per his request, even after the operation formally ended following a general consensus among the affected families.
In this case, as well, the priority will be to address the emotional requirements of the affected people, he said. Unlike, Kavalappara, the rescue operation is challenging at Mundakkai in Wayanad due to the nature of the terrain and the magnitude of the slide, which ejected debris as far as six to seven kilometres from the top of the slide. Meanwhile, the Revenue department has deputed four deputy collectors posted in various districts to assist the Wayanad district administration in relief and rescue operations.
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