Hassan:  The highly decomposed body of the fuel tanker driver has been retrieved from a 300 feet deep gorge near Doddathappale in Sakleshpur   taluk yesterday.

The mother and wife of the driver along with relatives had met Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri recently and had requested her to trace and retrieve the body.

The driver identified as Santosh of Anegola village in K.R. Pet taluk and cleaner Venkatesh of Raichur district were transporting fuel from Mangaluru to Bengaluru, when the tanker fell into a 300 feet deep gorge on Tuesday night due to landslide.

While the rescuers had managed to retrieve the body of Venkatesh the next day, they were unable to retrieve the body of Santosh as the cabin of the tanker was stuck 40 feet deep in slush besides rain hampering the rescue operation.

As the intensity of rain came down considerably, the rescuers managed to climb down the 300 feet deep gorge and retrieved the body of Santosh, which was in a highly decomposed state.

Though rain has receded in Sakleshpur and surrounding places, there were reports of landslides at several places yesterday following which excavators were pressed into  service to clear roadblocks and mounds of mud.