Search operations started early Saturday with more than 1,300 rescuers, heavy machinery and sophisticated equipment being deployed to look for survivors from the ravages of the landslides that have killed more than 300 people. Private companies specialising in search and rescue and volunteers have also joined the operations led by the Army, police, and emergency service units. However, huge boulders and logs brought by landslides and deposited in the residential areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala are posing a significant challenge to rescue efforts to locate people believed to be trapped beneath the rubble. Around 200 people are suspected to be missing and rescue operators are battling adverse conditions, including waterlogged soil, as they search through destroyed homes and buildings. The district administration had on Friday divided the landslide-hit areas into zones, mapped potential spots for rescue work by using GPS, took aerial photographs and cell phone location data. They have also used ground penetrating radar and cadaver dog squads to look for bodies buried deep under the debris. A large number of medical professionals, from the armed forces as well as civilians, and ambulances have been on stand by in the area to provide immediate aid if any survivors are found.The July 30 landslides affected Mundakkai, Chooralmala, and Attamala villages in Vythiri taluka which do not figure in the draft notification.Follow this space for more updates:
Search operations started early Saturday with more than 1,300 rescuers, heavy machinery and sophisticated equipment being deployed to look for survivors from the ravages of the landslides that have killed more than 300 people. Private companies specialising in search and rescue and volunteers have also joined the operations led by the Army, police, and emergency service units. However, huge boulders and logs brought by landslides and deposited in the residential areas of Mundakkai and Chooralmala are posing a significant challenge to rescue efforts to locate people believed to be trapped beneath the rubble. Around 200 people are suspected to be missing and rescue operators are battling adverse conditions, including waterlogged soil, as they search through destroyed homes and buildings. The district administration had on Friday divided the landslide-hit areas into zones, mapped potential spots for rescue work by using GPS, took aerial photographs and cell phone location data. They have also used ground penetrating radar and cadaver dog squads to look for bodies buried deep under the debris. A large number of medical professionals, from the armed forces as well as civilians, and ambulances have been on stand by in the area to provide immediate aid if any survivors are found.The July 30 landslides affected Mundakkai, Chooralmala, and Attamala villages in Vythiri taluka which do not figure in the draft notification.Follow this space for more updates: