KOCHI: It was a horrifying sight for the people living on the banks of Chaliyar river in Pothukallu area of Nilambur when they found several dead bodies and parts of human bodies floating in the water, along with the household items on Tuesday.
It was around 7.30am that a group of residents on the river bank spotted the body of a boy, approximately three years old, stuck in a bamboo thicket at Mele Kunippala, 20km downstream of the landslide site near Mundakkai in Wayanad.Within 10 minutes one more body was found in the river at Vellilamadu.
In the day-long detailed search by residents with the support of police, fire and rescue service personnel and NDRF team at least 49 more bodies – of which 25 have only parts – were recovered from different parts of the river by Tuesday evening.
When a man’s body was found floating in a decapitated state, another body was found without lower parts, including legs. A girl’s body was found stuck near Panamkayam bridge around 2km away from Pothukallu region. Body of a woman was recovered from the Machikkai area in Bhoothanam, which is located near Kavalappara, where more than 50 persons were killed in a massive landslide in 2019. Three bodies were found from Iruttukuthikadavu near Munderi farm region alone.
“Since no major landslide occurred in the Nilambur forest region on Monday night, it is presumed that the recovered bodies are those of the Mundakkai landslide victims. The bodies flowed approximately 20km downstream. Notably, the watercourse from the landslide area to Chaliyar river, between Chooralmala and Pothukallu, features a significant waterfall in Soojippara and several smaller ones, which would have contributed to the bodies being carried such a distance,” said Jayaprakash Nilambur, a social activist in Pothukallu.
“It’s likely many more bodies are trapped in the dense forest between Chooralmala and Pothukallu as the altered course of the Mundakkai river following the landslide may have swept victims off the usual path, making recovery efforts even more challenging,” said Jijith P V, a native of Chooralmala, who is now staying in a relief camp.
According to Pothukallu police, it was around 8am that the police, fire and rescue service personnel, emergency rescue force (ERF) started the search for the bodies with the support of residents, after reports emerged about bodies floating in the river. “In the beginning, the search was carried out only in the Pothukallu region. But numerous bodies started coming in through the overflowing river and we were forced to extend the search to both sides of the river, deploying more rescue persons, including NDRF personnel. Within two hours the team managed to recover 11 bodies from the Munderi region alone. Apart from these, many human body parts also were recovered. The number of bodies increased to more than 40 by 5pm,” said a police source in Pothukallu.
The recovered bodies have been shifted to the Nilambur district government hospital for the relatives to identify. Pothukallu police authorities have informed that the search operation will continue on Wednesday.
