Rescuers dig for landslide victims at Indian village

Rescuers using earth-moving equipment and their bare hands dug through heavy mud and debris on Thursday after a landslide engulfed an entire village in western India, killing at least 30 people and leaving about 100 missing and feared dead.

More than 24 hours after the Wednesday morning slide, authorities said the chances of survival were slim for anyone still trapped under the mud in Malin, a village of some 700 people in the Pune district of Maharashtra state.

Suresh Jadhav, a district official, said around 40 homes were wiped out.

Two days of torrential rains triggered the landslide, and rain continued to pound the area as rescuers brought bodies covered in soaked white sheets to waiting ambulances while weeping relatives stood by. Bad communications, dangerous roads and debris delayed the arrival of national rescue personnel for several hours on Wednesday.

The disaster came to light when a bus driver passed by and saw that the village had disappeared under masses of mud.

"The driver returned to a nearby city and alerted authorities," Jadhav said. "Everything on the mountain came down."

Thirty bodies had been recovered, and eight people were pulled out alive, rescue official Sachin Tamboli said.

Suresh Dhonde, who was working in another town when the slide suffocated his village, said only two people managed to get out of his home alive.

"The other six are buried under the mud," he said.

Crowds of people from nearby areas were helping rescuers by using their bare hands to move fallen trees and rocks. About 250 disaster response workers and at least 100 ambulances were involved in the effort, officials said.

Overnight, emergency workers used floodlights mounted on jeeps to illuminate the disaster area, where the tangled roofs of homes poked up through the thick mud.

Rescuers expected the death toll to rise in the village, located in the foothills of the Sahyadri Mountains. Sandeep Rai Rathore, a top official of the National Disaster Response Force, estimated that around 100 people were still missing. They are feared to be dead.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned the loss of life and said all possible efforts must be made to help the victims, according to a statement from his office. He sent Home Minister Rajnath Singh to the disaster area.

Landslides are common in the area during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September. The area around the village has seen extensive deforestation, increasing its vulnerability to such slides. Similar deforestation and environmental damage have caused floods and landslides in other parts of India.

Pune district is about 150 kilometers southeast of Mumbai, the country's commercial capital.

On Thursday, heavy rains hit a remote mountain village in northern India, and six members of a family were feared dead, police officer Pravin Tamta said. The police have recovered two bodies and were searching for four others in Tehri district in the hilly Uttarakhand state, Tamta said. The village is 300 km north of New Delhi.

Last year, more than 6,000 people were killed as floods and landslides raked Uttarakhand state during the monsoon season.

(China Daily 08/01/2014 page11)