In the early hours of Friday a massive landslide in Munnar, Kerala resulted in substantial destruction in the Pettimudi hills at Rajamala in Munnar, Idukki district. Many people are trapped under heaps of debris in the area. According to the rescue workers involved in the rescue operation, a church and nearly four lanes of quarters are buried under the rubble.
Around 80 people are estimated to be trapped inside due to the massive landslide. As of now, 12 dead bodies have been found, and at least ten people have been rescued from the affected area and shifted to the hospital. The rescue operation is still in progress.
Due to the massive landslide, a part of Pettimudi hills came crashing down on the worker’s colony. And As the mishappening took place in the wee hours, most of the people were asleep in their quarters, so there was no time to escape from the landslide.
After the massive landslide in Munnar, the entire area affected by the landslide have been cut off from the outside world, and all the communication channels have crashed.
THE BRIDGE: A CONNECTING LINK
The rescue operation became more stringent as the rescue workers were facing difficulty in reaching the spot due to the washing away of Periyavara bridge.
However, the work on the new temporary Periyavara has started.
Talking about the bridge, it was previously destroyed during the heavy rainfalls of August 2018. Then again it suffered damage due to the north-west and south-west monsoon of 2019. The present bridge was constructed under the leadership of Coir Fed, but it again got damaged on Thursday when the kannimala river rose to a high level. Near the temporary bridge in Periyavara a new concrete bridge has already been built. Still, the vehicle movement through the bridge has not been possible because its approach via the road has not been constructed yet.
The new bridge is to be constructed from Devikulam MLAs Rajendra’s fund at the cost of Rs 4.75 crore.
STEPS TAKEN BY THE AUTHORITIES
Many rescue teams like Estate workers, NDRF, Police, Revenue officials, Rescue personnel and Teams of fire are sent for the rescue operation but every staff is struggling to conduct the rescue operations.
After District collector, H Dhineshan was informed about the landslide he sent a team of rescue workers to Pettymudy. He said that the search operations to locate people and rescue them are in progress.
The nearby hospitals are well equipped with every facility to treat the people rescued from the landslide affected area in
The state health department has sent around 15 ambulances and a special mobile medical team to the landslide struct areas of Idukki.
Health Minister KK Shailaja said that more medical teams are kept on standby to meet the necessities. She has directed the hospitals and medical staff to make all the arrangements required to treat the people injured from the massive landslide.
