The heavy rainfall in Karnataka’s Kodagu continued on Saturday and rescue operations are on to rescue eight people who were trapped under a massive landslide in Thora village in Virajpet taluk.
According to Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy, half a portion of a hill collapsed into the coffee estate and fell directly on top of three homes of workers who lived in the estate.
“The landslide was massive. It was similar to the one which occurred last year in Meketalu and Yemmetalu, where 20 bodies were recovered once the soil was cleared. So far, we know that eight people have been trapped underneath. But we have been getting reports that around 20 people may have been inside,” she said.
Kodagu district administration officials say that the landslide submerged the entire village of Thora and uprooted coffee plants and trees along with it. DC Joy says that the resulting debris of the landslide is 40 ft high and around 1,000 kg of soil and trees have fallen.
“There was a small bridge to Thora, which was submerged. Rescue personnel reached the periphery of the village via rafts and boats but they could not navigate beyond that. All of them had to trek for 4 km to reach the place where the landslide occurred. The paths are too narrow for an earthmover to pass by. We managed to get one small Hitachi earthmover and it took an entire afternoon for that,” Kodagu district administration officials said.
On Friday, two bodies were recovered from Thora – that of a woman and her 14-year-old daughter. The district administration says it will take at least three to four days to recover the bodies.
So far, seven deaths have been reported in Kodagu alone. On Friday, bodies of five people were pulled out of a landslide near Bagamandala. According to DC Annies Joy, entire villages between Bagamandala and Kushanagar have been submerged in water and around 5,000 homes located along the banks of River Cauvery were destroyed as the river overflowed due to heavy rainfall.