Union home minister Rajnath Singh, former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and speaker of the state legislative assembly Dilip Walse Patil visited the village and took stock of the situation. Three excavators have been pressed into service to remove the debris under which more than 60 houses have been buried.
Several medical teams from government and private hospitals, besides fire-brigade personnel, are camping at the village. With very little chances of finding more survivors, all that the medical teams can do is shift the bodies from the silt to the nearest public health centre at Adivare village in ambulances.
The incessant heavy rain in the village is hampering excavation work. The school building and a few houses were the only constructions that were saved in the landslide. Besides bodies, a bell from the Hanuman temple, a domestic LPG cylinder and a mangled motorcycle were found during the excavation.
The NDRF team engaged in the excavation work is taking utmost care while searching for bodies. Of the three excavators, two just push the silt aside while the third one collects the silt and transfers it into a truck.
Alok Awasthi, commandant of the Talegaon-based 5th NDRF Battalion, said, "Around 158 people are still trapped in the debris. We have recovered 41 dead bodies and eight survivors till late afternoon on Thursday. The rescue work will take another 48 to 72 hours to finish."
Expressing condolences to the families of the victims, Rajnath Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released Rs 2 lakh to the families of each victim. This is in addition to the assistance given through the NDRF and state disaster response fund.
Speaking to reporters at Malin, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said he would urge the state government to work out a plan to shift out such small villages that are located on hill slopes. There are several such villages in the Sahayadri hill range. "A similar incident had taken place near Kamshet in Maval 25 years back. For now, we will focus on the rescue operations instead of trying to examine the reasons why the landslide occurred," he said.
District collector Saurabh Rao said the response time of the district administration to the Malin village tragedy was about three hours. "Our teams reached the site around 11 am and immediately started rescue work," he said.
Kin wait for bodies, say silt removal will take time
It has been an agonizing wait for relatives of the victims at Malin. Sharada Zanjare, who lives in Pune, lost three of her relatives in Wednesday's landslide. "The excavators have been able to remove silt from just one portion of the mound so far. It will take several days before all the silt is removed," she said.
Narayan Unde, who lives in the village, said he and his wife were saved because they had left home on Sunday for Undewadi, a local hamlet nearby. "Many relatives had come to the village to transplant paddy. All of them lost their lives. I have lost my house, but I am fortunate to be alive," he said.
Radhabai Dhongade, an aanganwadi worker, had come to the village to find two of her colleagues, Kusum Zanjare and Baydabai Zanjare as well as their relatives. The village has an aanganwadi room which suffered no damage in the landslide.
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