As the disaster caused by last Tuesday’s landslide completed seven days on Monday, death toll crossed 400 according to unconfirmed reports. On Monday 27 unidentified dead bodies and 120 mutilated human organs were buried amidst chanting of all religious prayers by Muslim, Christian and Hindu priests.
More than hundred persons who went missing following the landslide and deluge remained missing while the soldiers of the Indian Army and NDRP scan the region for traces of any signals from human beings.
According to Kerala Government, 222 persons have lost their lives in he disaster notwithstanding the fact that dismembered and mutilated body organs numbering more than 200 were retrieved from Chaliyar River and underneath the rock boulders.
M B Rajesh, minister for local self-government said on Monday that those who suffered losses and left without a roof over their shoulders would be offered certificates by the authorities that they were victims of the landslides and flash flood. He said the documents would facilitate the victims to approach anybody in the country seeking help and aids for building houses or to get a livelihood.
Meanwhile a statement of war erupted between Kerala Government and Bhupender Yadav, the Union Minister for Environment and Forests over the cause of the devastating landslide and deluge in Wayanad. The Union Minister in an interaction with the media at New Delhi made some disclosures which were unpalatable to the ministers belonging to the CPI(M).
“Though Kerala was forewarned about the consequences of massive quarrying, mining and deforestation in the ecologically fragile Wayanad region, the political parties seenm to have ignored the same and went ahead with whatever was not advisable in the region. Taking into account the possible repercussions on Wayanad’s environment, the Centre has not allowed any projects during the last ten years,” Yadav had said. What he told was what Prof Madhav Gadgil, noted environmentalist, had said in his expetrt committee report on Western Ghats.
But ministers Rajesh and finance minister K N Balagopalan, belittled what Union Minister Yadav had said. “He should know what he is speaking and he does not know anything on environment and ecology,” said Rajesh.
Balagopalan said Yadav should study the facts before making such comments as it has the potential to create misunderstanding in the minds of the people. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said during his media briefing that the Madhav Gadgil Committee report does not deserve to be considered seriously.
Travelers coming to see the Wayanad landscape would be welcomed by the burial ground that houses all those unidentified victims who perished in the landslide and floods.
