WAYANAD (Kerala), July 31:
The number of people who lost their lives in the devastating series of landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad district has climbed to 158, with authorities on Wednesday expressing concern over the fate of 191 people who are still missing.
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“Rescue operations in Wayanad are continuing in full swing. Our land has never experienced such painful sights before,” Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
The Wayanad district administration confirmed the deaths of 158 people in the calamity.
Earlier, addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram, the chief minister said that so far, 144 bodies have been recovered. Among them, 79 are men and 64 are women.
“191 people are still missing,” according to the latest count.
Earlier in the day, a Cabinet meeting chaired by CM Vijayan expressed condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the disaster.
Vijayan said the scenes in Mundakkai and Chooralmala areas of the district are devastating. “Both these areas have been completely destroyed,” he said.
He added that efforts to rescue as many people as possible from the disaster zone are progressing well.
“In the two-day rescue operation, 1,592 people were rescued. This is the achievement of a coordinated and extensive mission to save so many people in a short span of time,” Vijayan said.
He said that in the first phase, 206 people from 68 families in the nearby areas of the disaster were shifted to three camps.
“This includes 75 men, 88 women, and 43 children,” the chief minister said.
Following the landslide, 1,386 people who were stranded and those who were trapped in their homes were rescued as a result of the ongoing rescue mission.
“This includes 528 men, 559 women, and 299 children who were shifted to seven camps. Two hundred and one people were rescued and taken to the hospital, of which 90 are currently undergoing treatment,” he said. (PTI)
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