The Kerala tourism department, on Thursday, August 8, has called off the Onam week celebrations in the state, in light of the devastating landslides that struck Wayanad. State Minister for Tourism PA Mohamed Riyas said that around 200 persons have died and search is underway for several missing people. “In view of the grim tragedy inflicted by this massive disaster, these important annual events are being dropped,” he said.
Kerala government usually organises a week-long celebration for Onam in the capital city Thiruvananthapuram. Apart from this, celebrations are scheduled at the district-level and government offices level. All of them are cancelled at the moment.
The tourism department has also announced that the Champion’s Boat League (CBL) races planned by the Tourism department have been cancelled.
The death toll in the landslide-affected Wayanad in Kerala reached 413 on August 8 as the search for 152 missing people continued on day 10. A total of 78 bodies and over 150 body parts have been recovered so far.
The standard operating procedure for recovery of bodies and body parts from the river is that they are first sent for DNA tests and then kept for identification. Later, these bodies and body parts are interned in the land taken from the Harrison Malayalam plantations which has now been converted into a burial ground. In front of every grave, there is a number and when the DNA results come out, if it matches the family, then they will be able to know that it was their kith or kin.
In the affected areas, there are over 100 relief camps where more than 10,800 people are housed. They are waiting to be moved out to other places, as the Local Self government in the locality are searching for homes that are locked and also buildings which are not used by the state government.