Madikeri, Sept.3 (PS&DM)- With NDRF and other rescue teams making little headway in the search operation to find the bodies of four remaining persons at Thora village in Virajpet taluk, who are presumably dead, the search operation has been stopped, reportedly with the consent of the families of the missing persons.

A total of 10 persons had gone missing after a hillock collapsed due to a deluge at Thora village along Karnataka-Kerala border in Virajpet taluk on Aug.9.

While rescue teams succeeded in tracing the bodies of six victims, the bodies of four others, who are presumed dead, has not yet been traced even after 25 days of the incident.

The bodies of Veena, wife of one Harish and that of the mother of one Prabhu Bhat and his two children are yet to be discovered.

With rescue teams finding it all the more difficult to carry out search for the missing bodies at the spot, the search operations were halted after 22 days on Saturday due to inclement weather and a difficult terrain covered by slushy mud. However, till now, the bodies of Mamatha, Likhita, Anasuya, Shankara and Appu were traced on different dates following the Aug.9 tragedy.

Although the four missing persons are presumably dead, their death cannot be officially declared as their bodies are not yet found. As such, the names of untraced persons namely Devakki (65), mother of Prabhu, his two children Amrutha (13) and Aditya (10) and Veena, wife of Harish, will remain as missing persons in Police records, until their bodies are discovered.

Rs.1 lakh relief

Meanwhile, the Kodagu District Administration, considering it as a special case, distributed Rs.1 lakh cheque each to Harish and Prabhu Bhat, whose family members have gone missing and the bodies are yet to be traced. The District Administration, which has stopped search operations after getting the consent of the two families, is said to have submitted a comprehensive report on the incident and the rescue and search operations to the State Government.

39 people have lost life in two years floods

With the district devastated by two years of successive deluge, landslides and landslips, a total of 39 people have lost their lives due to the natural calamity, while a total of five persons have gone missing, who also are presumed dead.

While the bodies of four persons at Thora village — Devakki, Amrutha, Aditya and Veena — are yet to be traced, who are believed dead in the massive landslide at the village that occurred on Aug.9 this year, the body of 15-year-old girl Manjula, who is said to have been washed away by floods on Aug.17, 2018, is yet to be traced, even after one year.

After failing to trace Manjula’s body, her parents had performed Manjula’s ‘last rites’ by ‘cremating’ her portrait. As a humanitarian gesture, the previous JD(S)-Congress Coalition Government  had presented a Rs.5 lakh cheque to the parents of Manjula. Now that the bodies of four persons yet to be traced at Thora, it is eagerly awaited as to what further action will the present Govt. takes in this regard.