Vikram Rana, a resident of Sarela village under Thakoli Girthan panchayat in neighboring Fatehpur district, remained undetected on Saturday, five days after he was trapped in a massive landslide at a tunnel construction site in Kerala’s Wayanad district on July 7.
His brothers, Promod Rana and Kulwant Rana, who arrived at the scene on Wednesday, a day after the incident, continue to remain there, eagerly awaiting news of his whereabouts.
Speaking over phone, Promod said that after recovering three bodies, including that of engineer Rahul Sharma from Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, rescue teams recovered another body on Friday morning. The deceased was an employee of a construction company and hailed from West Bengal. His body was found in a flooded nullah adjacent to the landslide site.
Promod said four teams, including the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), fire and rescue services, Kerala Police and volunteers from the NGO Jeevan Rakshak, continued rescue and search operations despite the inclement weather. He said extensive searches were carried out in the nullah near the landslide site but no trace of his brother was found.
He added that after unsuccessful searches in Null, teams began clearing the site of the landslide on Friday evening using heavy equipment including excavators, JCBs and bulldozers.
Expressing gratitude to the local administration and the Kerala government for the ongoing rescue efforts, Promod said Kerala Agriculture Minister T Siddique has been on the ground for the last five days to supervise the search operation.