Search operation at landslide site resumes on third day in Maharashtra's Raigad; 86 persons yet to be traced

The search and rescue operation at Irshalwadi hamlet in Maharashtra's Raigad district, where a massive landslide claimed the lives of at least 22 people, resumed for the third day on Saturday as 86 villagers are yet to be traced, officials said.

The landslide at the tribal village, situated on a hill slope under Khalapur tehsil that is located around 80 km from Mumbai, occurred on Wednesday night. The death toll till Thursday evening was 16, which went up to 22 on Friday as six more bodies were recovered.

The deceased included nine men, as many women and four children. Nine members of a family perished in the disaster, officials have said. "The search and rescue operation by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and other government agencies resumed for the third day on Saturday morning," a police official said.

Also Read | Death toll in Irshalwadi landslide rises to 22 including nine members of family

The search operation was suspended around 6 pm on Friday due to heavy rains, an NDRF official said. "Four NDRF teams and other agencies resumed the operation this morning," he said. At least 17 of 48 houses in the village, located on a hill slope, were fully or partially buried under the landslide debris. As per the Raigad district disaster management office, of 229 village residents, 22 were dead, 10 were injured, 111 were safe and 86 persons were yet to be traced.

Some of them, however, had left the village to attend a marriage while some were out for rice plantation work at the time of the incident. Of the six victims whose bodies were pulled out on Friday, three were men and three women. Four children, aged between six months to four years, are among the deceased, officials said.

A three-year-old boy and his six-month-old sister are among the nine members of one family who died in the incident, they said. Three livestock animals also died in the incident, while 21 animals were rescued.

From the hill base, it takes around one-and-a-half hours to reach Irshalwadi. As the village, overlooked by Irshalgad fort, a popular trekking destination, does not have a pucca road, earth movers and excavators could not be easily moved and the rescue operation is being carried out manually, officials said.

As many as 60 containers have been requisitioned to be used as transit camps for the survivors and 40 of them have already reached the location, a release issued on Friday by the office of the Deputy Director of Publicity, Konkan division, said. In addition, 20 temporary toilets and an equal number of bathrooms have been prepared at the site, it said. In the wake of the landslide incident, the Maharashtra government has decided to shift residents of all landslide-prone areas in the state to safer locations, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde told the state legislative assembly on Friday. Irshalwadi hamlet was not on the list of landslide-prone areas, he said. On July 22, 2021, a massive landslide at Taliye village in Mahad tehsil of Raigad district had claimed 87 lives.