Bhubaneswar/Phulbani: One body was recovered Sunday, while a search operation was underway to trace 11 missing people in a southern Odisha village hit by a landslide due to Cyclone Arnab-induced rainfall, taking the state’s death toll to five, officials said.
Home to around 26 people, the hilltop Gidipabali village on the border of Ganjam and Kandhamala districts has disappeared from the map as an enormous amount of sludge and debris cascaded down the hills and levelled houses earlier this week.
They have been sheltered at a relief centre near G Udaygiri, said Kandhamala District Collector Vedbhusan. Odisha has reported 10 landslides due to incessant rain brought in by the cyclone that made landfall in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh on October 28.
Official sources said that 177 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), Fire Service, Special Operation Group, railways, and the Indian Navy have been sifting through mud and stones in search of the missing people in the Gidipabali village.
A day earlier, Special Relief Commissioner Rajesh P Patil said 14 of the 26 villagers have been accounted for. “One body was found today. The details of the deceased are not yet known,” he told reporters Sunday.
“We are using the seismic life detection unit of the Odisha fire department and the railways’ chain pulley system to safely evacuate people from the landslide-affected area,” the official said.
Officials said that the death toll in incidents related to Cyclone Arnab has reached five, with the recovery of the body in the landslide-hit Gidipabali village. Earlier, three members of a family died in a landslide in Kandhamala and another man was swept away by water torrents in Gajapati district.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said the state government was taking all possible measures to save missing people, while leader of the opposition Naveen Patnaik said he was “concerned and saddened” to learn about the landslide in Bhanjanagar.
“I urge the government to ensure all necessary steps are taken for the swift and safe rescue of the people. At this untimely moment of grief, I convey my deepest condolences to the bereaved families and pray for the safe rescue of everyone,” Patnail said on X.
