Pune landslide toll mounts to 136

With the recovery of six more bodies, the death toll in the Malin village landslide disaster has gone up to 136, even as health officials are sanitising the area in view of the unhygienic conditions there due to decomposing bodies.

The district control room said the 136 dead included 53 men, 65 women and 18 children.

The National Disaster Response Force jawans have also extricated 33 carcasses of animals from the huge mound of debris that buried the village near on July 30.

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Rain and marshy land mass created by mud continued to hamper movement of JCBs and other heavy equipment pressed into service to remove the debris, officials said.

NDRF jawans wore face masks to protect themselves from the unhygienic conditions and stench of decomposed bodies. The hopes of finding survivors have died as the rescue operation entered the seventh day on Tuesday.

District health department has set up a team to spray disinfectants and take necessary measures to prevent possible health problems in the area, which was still being lashed by intermittent rains, said V Banavate, the district administration official monitoring the situation.

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Meanwhile, grieving relatives performed last rites of the victims at mass cremation in the village using firewood supplied by the forest department, he said. The clearing of the debris could take another two days, he added.

The district administration had earlier issued eviction notices to residents in the few remaining houses in the area, after an advisory by Geological Survey of India warned of a possibility of more landslides, if rains continued to lash the region for another three or four days.