The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), in consultation with the Pune district administration, local people and elected representatives, called off the debris clearance operation at Malin on Wednesday evening, after pegging the final toll in the July 30 landslide at 151.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Maharashtra Cabinet approved a compensation and rehabilitation package for the bereaved and affected families at Malin in Pune district.
“We called off the debris removing operation at 7 pm. The final toll in the landslide is 151. We have extricated 146 human bodies and 10 dismembered body parts like hands and leg etc from under the debris. The medical teams present at Malin counted 10 body parts as five human bodies. This means, the total number of people killed in the landslide was 151,” NDRF Alok Awasthi told The Pioneer .
Pune’s Additional District Collector Ganesh Patil said, “We arrived at the final landslide toll figure of 151, after verification of the list of missing persons and elaborate consultation with the villagers. We held two meetings with the village to arrive at the final figure. It was only after the villagers confirmed that all the missing persons have been accounted for that we called off the debris clearance operation at Malin”.
Talking to this newspaper on his way back to Pune from after completing the debris clearance operation at Malin, Patil said, “The medical teams, along with NDRF personnel disinfected the entire Malin village before calling off the operation at 7 pm”.
According to Patil, as many as 189 people were in the Malin Gaotan, the central portion of the village where the landslide occurred on the morning of July 30. “Of the 189 people, 151 were killed in the landslide, while 38 survived the disaster. Of the total persons dead, eight had come to the village as guests,” Patil said.“The 38 survivors comprised eight those of those who were rescued from under the debris, some were injured and others were away from their homes when the mounds of mud and slush slide on their dwellings,” Patil said.
The landslide, which occurred at around 6 am on July 30, had crushed as many as 66 properties, including 47 households, in Malin village. Malin, which forms a part of the Bhimshankar Hills, is located on the hilly terrain of Western Ghats. It has incidentally been identified as one of the eco-sensitive villages by a High level Working Group (HlWG) headed by Dr K Kasturirangan.
Official sources said that those killed in the landslide comprised 72 women, 58 men and 21 children.In a related development, the Maharashtra Cabinet – at a meeting held on Wednesday afternoon -- approved a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of those killed in the Malin landslide.
The State Cabinet also approved a rehabilitation package for the villagers displaced by the landslide.“Under a rehabilitation plan that is being prepared, the state government will build houses for all those villagers who were rendered homeless by the landslide. Besides, the affected families will be provided utensils and other essential things needed for their homes, under the special package. A revenue officer of the grade of Additional district collector will be appointed to execute the rehabilitation scheme for the affected villagers,” Maharashtra chief minister Prithiviraj Chavan said.
The chief minister said that in the case of families where all the members were killed in the landslide, compensation would be given to the legal heirs of the families concerned.
Chavan said that the state government would take steps to improve the agriculture fields eroded by the landslide. A survey would be conducted in villages where Malin-like disasters could happen and such villages would be relocated.Similarly, the State Tribal Welfare department would help private mobile companies to erect mobile towers in remote and tribal villages, Chavan said.The chief minister heaped praise on the NDRF personnel and local administration involved in the relief and rescue operation, for their tireless work.