A seventh body has been recovered from the site of the landslide in Wayanad, Kerala, bringing the total number of fatalities in the disaster to seven. The body, identified as that of Rakesh Guchait, a surveyor from West Bengal, was retrieved from near the Meenakshi bridge on Friday.
According to district officials, Guchait’s body will undergo a postmortem examination at the Vythiri Taluk hospital before being taken to the Kozhikode Government Medical College hospital for embalming. The body will then be handed over to his family.
Search operations continue in the area, with several teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, fire force officials, and police officers working to locate a missing person. Vikram Rana, a construction manager from Himachal Pradesh, is still unaccounted for.
The search efforts, which began early on the fourth day since the disaster, have involved the use of heavy earthmovers to clear mud and debris from the site. So far, six bodies were recovered from the site of the landslide, which occurred on July 7 at the Anakkompoyil Meppadi tunnel project.
The tunnel project aims to connect Wayanad and Kozhikode districts, and the landslide has caused significant disruption to the area.
