Kerala landslides: State govt issues guidelines for burial of remains
Wayanad (Kerala) (PTI): As more and more bodies and body parts are recovered from the landslide-hit areas of this north Kerala district with many remaining unidentified or unclaimed, the state government has issued guidelines, including collection of DNA and dental samples, for burial of the remains.
According to the guidelines issued by the Disaster Management Department, an identification number shall be assigned to each body or body part and the same shall be clearly mentioned in all the samples, photographs or videos of the remains and the record of material objects associated with the body.
It further said that police shall make all possible efforts to identify the bodies or body parts and if identification was not possible, they shall release the body to the district administration for further action after 72 hours from the time of inquest.
"The district administration shall inform Meppadi panchayat and the panchayat or municipality in which the burial site is located. In cases where the doctor concerned has advised, in writing, immediate burial due to decomposition or otherwise, the body shall be released to the district administration immediately without any waiting period.
"The disposal of bodies shall only be in the form of burial," the guidelines issued on August 2 said.
The district administration has been directed to ensure burial of the body with clearcut markings of the identification number at the spot of burial.
It was also directed that the burial shall take place in the presence of officials of the panchayat or municipality where it is carried out.
"The district administration shall maintain necessary records of the burial location details for reference," the guidelines said.
Similar are the guidelines for bodies which are identified but not claimed and where identification is contested or doubtful.
The guidelines also directed that the actual cost of burial shall be certified by an appropriate authority authorised by the District Disaster Management Authority, Wayanad for the purpose and "the actual expenditure for each case shall be met from the State Disaster Response Fund".
According to the district administration, 210 bodies and 139 body parts have been recovered from the landslide-hit areas and around 218 people are missing.
However, Kerala ADGP M R Ajith Kumar had on Friday said that approximately 300 people are still missing.
The district administration, on Friday, had also said that 147 of the recovered bodies have been identified by relatives.
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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.
