The toll in the Irshalwadi landslide rose to 22 on Friday, even as the various agencies rescued as many as 119 others from under the debris of the landslide that crushed 17 houses at Irshalwadi village in Khalapur taluka of rain-ravaged Raigad district in coastal Konkan region late on Wednesday night.
On a day when the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and fire brigade personnel from the nearby areas recovered six more bodies from under the landslide debris, a statement made by chief minister Eknath Shinde in the State Assembly gave rise to an apprehension that a large number of people were still feared buried under the debris.
Giving the details of the rescue and relief operations being carried out at Irshalwadi, Shinde said: “In landslide-affected village (which had 48 families and a population of 228 people at the time of mishap), as many as 109 people have so far been identified. The search and rescue operation is continuing”.
There are conflicting versions about the number of people rescued from under the debris.
On Thursday evening, the NDRF had pegged the number of people rescued at 98, while the official sources said that the authorities had till Friday evening rescued 119 people. Given that some people, including children, were away from their homes at the time of mishap and some others had rushed out of their homes immediately after the landslide, it is difficult to account for the number of people who are still still missing.
Earlier in the day, the NDRF, SDRF and other rescue teams, who suspended the search operation on Thursday evening, resumed the operation in the early hours of Friday.
During the search operation that saw them clear mounds and mounds of debris and loose soil from the mishap site, the rescue teams recovered six more bodies from under the bodies, taking the toll in the landslide to 22.