Bhubaneswar: The death toll due to landslides triggered by cyclone Arnab in the state mounted to four Saturday with another death, while search operation was intensified for 12 others who remained missing.
Special Relief Commissioner Rajesh Prabhakar Patil said that three districts – Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal – have been worst affected due to continuous rain after the cyclone.
Giving details of the casualties, the SRC said three members of a single family died in Raikia in Kandhamala district in a landslide. In Gajapati district, one person who was earlier reported missing has died.
The government launched a search operation for 12 people who went missing after a rain-triggered landslide struck a village bordering Ganjam and Kandhamala districts a day ago.
The SRC said altogether 170 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force, Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and Special Operation Group have been engaged in the operation to locate the missing people.
“A hilltop village was home to 26 people. Thirteen of them managed to escape from the landslide, while 13 others went missing. One of the missing people has been traced, and others are still untraceable. The search operation has been going on since Friday night,” Patil told reporters here Saturday.
The landslide at Gidipabali village under the Baibali panchayat in Ganjam’s Bhanjanagar block was among the 10 such incidents that occurred during incessant rain triggered by cyclone Arnab.
Heavy rain inundated hundreds of villages in the state’s southern part.
