Kerala landslides: Rescue ops continue on 5th day with over 1,300 rescuers roped in
Wayanad (PTI): 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 200 people.
Private companies specialising in the field of 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.
As many as 210 people have died and 273 were injured in the massive landslides that hit Wayanad district in the wee hours of July 30.
Around 300 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 190-foot-long Bailey bridge, constructed by the army on Thursday and handed over to the Wayanad administration, has so far proven crucial in rescue efforts.
The bridge that has allowed movement of heavy machinery and ambulances to the landslide-hit areas will serve till a proper bridge is built in the area.
Rescue operations are also ongoing along the 40-kilometre stretch of the Chaliyar river which flows through Wayanad, Malappuram, and Kozhikode districts.
More than a hundred bodies and body parts have been recovered from the river and its banks.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
