• 173 deaths confirmed in landslides in Kerala: Wayanad district administration, reports PTI

The real picture of the horror that unfolded early on Tuesday in the tourist resort of Wayanad emerged the morning after with more bodies being dug out from slimy landmass and the banks of a river flowing downstream.

The death toll rose to 167 while close to 200 are still missing. As many as 1,386 people have been rescued from partly destroyed houses and more than 8,000 shifted to relief camps in the picturesque district of Kerala. The armed forces, disaster response teams and civilian volunteers continued to dig with whatever they could in their combined quest for survivors or the dead.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday told a media conference that “144 bodies have been recovered so far. While 79 of the dead are men, 64 are women. Around 191 people are still missing,” he said.

“Of the 8,017 people moved to 82 relief camps across Wayanad, 19 are pregnant women,” he said, adding that the state health department had deployed a sufficient number of doctors and para-medical staff to provide medical care to those being rescued and moved to the relief camps.

The chief minister said Indian Army personnel from the Madras Engineering Group and other units were building a Bailey bridge to connect Mundakkai village, which was cut off after the landslides washed away the only bridge connecting it to Chooralmala, about 3km downhill.

“A second IAF aircraft carrying material to build the temporary bridge landed at Kannur airport today where 17 trucks are waiting to ferry the cargo to Chooralmala. Twenty trucks had carried the material delivered by the first IAF aircraft that landed in Kannur yesterday. They (the army) said the bridge would be ready tomorrow (Thursday),” Vijayan added.

The ghastly aftermath of the landslides emerged on Wednesday morning with the water receding and rainfall reducing. Relief teams that managed to get into Mundakkai saw large swathes of the area completely destroyed and bereft of any buildings.

None that withstood the landslide were left intact.

Meppadi panchayat secretary Naushad Ali told reporters that the preliminary assessment made by the local body found that 150 houses were among the structures destroyed, either fully orpartially.

“We don’t know how many occupants of these houses had managed to move to safety,” said Ali.

Relief teams continued to unearth bodies, some of them mutilated, in Pothukal along the banks of the Chaliyar river in the neighbouring Malappuram district, about 40km downstream.

“In all, we have so far received 94 bodies, identified 83 of them and handed over 53 to the next of kin. Three other bodies were badly mutilated,” Ali said.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had on Tuesday said forensic teams would help conduct DNA tests on the unidentifiable bodies.

A chopper joins the rescue operations in Wayanad on Wednesday. PTI picture

The Chaliyar river that runs down the hills had borne a deadly image hours after the landslides when bodies of men, women and children were seen floating along with driftwood and other debris.

Scores of ambulances were pressed into service from Tuesday to carry the bodies back to Meppadi to the kin of the dead. Batches of 10 ambulances each escorted by police patrol teams transported the bodies to Meppadi where they were cremated or buried.

Health minister Veena George said that officials from her department, police, panchayat and the revenue department were already working round-the-clock to provide relief to the affected people.

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who represented Wayanad before giving up the seat while retaining Rae Bareli earlier this year, and Priyanka Gandhi are scheduled to visit the affected families in Wayanad on Thursday. They are to visit the relief camps at Government Higher Secondary School, St Joseph’s UP School and Dr Moopen’s Medical College hospital — all in Meppadi.

Inclement weather had forced them to postpone their visit, originally planned for Wednesday.

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan of the Congress urged the state government to rehabilitate the affected people to rented accommodations until permanent structures are built at the state’s expense.

“The government should take urgent steps to rehabilitate those who have lost their homes. As the landslide-hit areas are no more safe for human habitation, the government must build houses for the affected people. Until then they should be provided good rented accommodation,” he told reporters.

All political parties and their youth wings rushed relief material to Wayanad, while the chief ministers of neighbouring states also pitched in with their share to provide a helping hand to the state in distress.

Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin dispatched senior civil servants, medical teams and experts specialised in search and rescue operations. The Tamil Nadu public works minister, E.V. Velu, handed over a cheque for ₹5 crore to Vijayan on Wednesday.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah rushed labour minister Santosh Lad to Wayanad to assist in the relief operations and announced a compensation of ₹5 lakh for each Kannadiga worker who perished in the landslides.

The plantation district bordering Karnataka attracts thousands of labourers. Kerala providing the highest wages in the country has been a magnet for workers, especially those engaged in tea and coffee picking.

Common people and local traders in Kerala pitched in, many of them by emptying their stocks and rushing them to relief camps in Meppadi.

Naushad, who sells garments in Kochi, carried his entire stock and distributed them among inmates of the relief camps in Meppadi on Wednesday, in a repeat of what he did during the 2018 floods.

“I have distributed clothes to relief camps and will be back on Friday with more relief material,” he told reporters.