Nishikant Khajuria
UDHAMPUR, Nov 13: Even as 11 persons are still under the debris, the authorities have called off one and half month long operation for retrieval of dead bodies of the victims, who were buried alive in the massive landslide at village Saddal in Pancheri block of Udhampur district.
Despite all out efforts with the help of men and machinery, there are no chances of retrieval of the missing bodies and therefore the 46 day-long extensive operation is being called off, official sources informed the Excelsior.
Since 11 bodies are believed to be still buried under the huge debris, sources added, a formal notification is being issued soon for officially declaring these missing persons to be presumed as dead.
It may be recalled that 40 persons of seven families, including women and children were buried alive in the massive landslide, which completely wiped out Saddal hamlet in Panjar village of tehsil Pancheri on September 7 following incessant rains in the region.
Initially only 13 bodies could be recovered from the debris while 16 more corpses were found after heavy excavators were pressed into service to retrieve corpses of missing persons.
However, despite all out efforts of the administration for more than one and half month, total 29 dead bodies could be recovered while 11 persons are still missing.
The missing persons, whose bodies are still buried under the debris, include two family members of Kapoor Singh (his wife Satya Devi and grandson Deep Singh), two of Shounku Ram (himself and his son Mohan), three family members of Girdhari Lal ( his wife Leela Devi, daughter Shardha Devi and son Deepak) and four members of Kalash ( his wife Tishu Devi, son Naman, daughter Darshna Devi and Nand Lal, son of Kalash’s brother-in-law).
According to the official sources, for the last few days they were excavating in the trash with no certainty of location but on the basis of guess work. “Looking for the family members of Girdhari Lal, we excavated deep at a particular point for four to five days but all in vain,” sources explained adding that the trash was so massive with big boulders that it was almost impossible to retrieve the bodies.
Intensity of the landslide can be gauged from the fact that there are no remains of the entire hamlet, which was spread in an area of approximately 3 by 2 kilometers housing more than sixty families with around 500 souls.
Since 11 bodies are still buried under the debris, the administration is going to issue a formal notification for officially declaring these missing persons as dead for issuance of death certificate. As per the new guidelines of Union Home Ministry, a persons missing for more than one month and belied to have died as per circumstantial evidences, may be declared as dead, sources explained.
The missing victims of Nowshera bus, which was washed away in flash floods on September 4, were also official declared dead recently by the administration.
Meanwhile, the authorities’ decision of calling off retrieval operation has dashed all hopes of the next of the kin of those still missing in the natural calamity. Reaching to Saddal daily in the morning from their temporary camp in Panjar and going back with no trace of the missing was a routine of these unfortunate villagers who were hoping for performing last rites of their loved one.
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