MUMBAI, India
The death toll from a massive landslide in Malin village in the western Indian state of Maharashtra rose to 63 on Friday as 300 rescue workers from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) continued searching for a third day, pulling out 22 bodies amid hostile weather conditions.
According to senior state government officials, the 63 deceased included 28 women, 10 children and 25 men while 100 people were feared buried under debris.
Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra state, said Thursday that at least 160 people were feared to be trapped under mud and rocks.
The hope of finding new survivors faded Friday, 50 hours after the landslide took down a massive section of a hillside flattening 45 mud and brick houses, leaving them in thick mud and slush.
"The houses have been buried under layers of wet mud, which makes chances of survival bleak, since no oxygen can go in," English-language news channel NDTV quoted Gautam Sarkar, a senior government official, as saying.
Rescue personnel from the Indian emergency response agency battled incessant rains and flowing water as they employed earth movers and dumpers to extract the bodies of missing people.
Chavan on Friday offered a financial package of $8,350 to the next kin of each deceased from chief minister’s relief fund.
Chavan also said the state government would provide free medical aid to the injured and Malin village in Pune district would be rehabilitated at the earliest.
Environment experts slammed the government for the the worst landslide tragedy to hit Maharashtra state, according to Indian media reports.
Environmentalists blamed the accident for shoddy implementation of various programs, like the levelling of land to make it cultivable and ready for installing green wind-energy projects.
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