Pune landslide: 100 bodies to be recovered, weather hampers work

Three days after a landslide buried over 40 homes of the Malin village in Pune’s Ambegaon taluka under several feet of slush, the death toll reached 73. This, however, is only the count of bodies recovered. About 100 more are still missing, and resuce teams said the hope of fiunding more survivors is now almost nil. [caption id=“attachment_1645239” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The government said important lessons needed to be learnt from the Pune landslide. PTI[/caption] The National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) said that the removal of slush and mud has been the biggest challenge. The force has been using canine squads to look for survivors and bodies under the wet soil. At least 100 to 110 more persons are missing and believed to be under the debris. Continuing rain has made it difficult to remove the slush, already a complex operation. Alok Awasthi, commandant of the Pune unit of NDRF, reportedly said the search operation to recover their bodies will take at least three or four more days. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has announced financial aid of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the victims through the chief minister’s relief fund.