MALAPPURAM: Seven more bodies were recovered from the landslide area in Kavalappara in Nilambur on Wednesday. The victims are Bhavya, 22, Kalyani, 55, Chakki, 80, Vijesh, 34, Vijayalakshmi, 17, Sreelakshmi, 15, and Vishnupriya, 10. Now, the total number of bodies identified has gone up to 31.
Search for the remaining 28 missing people are to continue on Thursday. Most of the bodies are in a decayed state. Though the rescue operations were disrupted for an hour in the morning due to rain, it continued in full swing till the evening.
“Today, we worked in the upper areas of the hill, despite the warnings of the disaster management team that landslips can occur in the area. It was a big risk, but fortunately, nothing bad happened today. We have decided to carry on with the operations as many people here trust us that we will get them at least the bodies of their loved ones,” said Moosa Vadakkath, district fire officer.
Around 13 Hitachi earthmovers were used in the rescue operation. In order to find the bodies, the authorities divided the landslide area into upper sector and lower sectors. Six retrieval spots have been identified in the sectors. “The spots have been identified with the help of local people. We think we can recover more bodies from these spots, the officer added. Meanwhile, the district administration has given up the idea of introducing new technologies to identify dead bodies.