Amidst Idukki landslide debris, 2 dogs search for their ‘best friends’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: This is the story of four dogs, and while, like all dog stories, it is about love, devotion, and duty, it isn’t a happy one.

The four dogs have been a constant presence at Rajamalai in Kerala’s Idukki district, the site of a landslide that has claimed at least 45 lives. Two have been there for three days now, ever since the landslide on Friday. Local breeds, they are searching for their humans.

Some rescue workers tried to offer them food, but they seem to have no interest in that. Finally, some locals coaxed them into eating a few bites, said Muniyandi, a plantation worker who has been at the site of the landslide since Saturday.

In the early hours of Friday,

a portion of the Pettimalai hills, near the hill-station Munnar, caved in, razing at least 30 houses of poor plantation workers, claiming at least 45 lives. At least 28, including the humans of the two dogs, are still missing.

“The pets’ plight has moved everyone. Whenever a body is extricated, they rush to the spot . Then they return to the shade under the rocks, waiting for the next,” said M J Babu, a senior journalist from Munnar. Some people tried to take the dogs, one black and the other grey, to their houses, but the canines have stood their ground.

Also on the site is Maya, a Belgian Malinois from Kerala Police who has helped discover at least six bodies under the rubble, and her colleague, Dona, a Labrador Retriever whose speciality is finding survivors (unfortunately, Dona has had little luck so far). Maya is still in training but has surprised even her handler P Prabhat.

Kerala’s director general of police Lokanth Behra, who had a brief stint with the National Investigation Agency before joining the post, said the canine squad has 150 trained dogs that are specialists in sniffing out bodies, explosives, gold and so on. “Maya has done wonders on her first assignment itself and she will be rewarded properly,” said the state police chief.

AT LEAST 28 PEOPLE, INCLUDING THE HUMANS OF THE TWO DOGS, ARE STILL MISSING AFTER A CAVE-IN ON FRIDAY

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The toll in Rajamalai landslide in Idukki district went up to 48 on Monday with the recovery of six more bodies while 22 are still missing, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. He said some bodies were recovered from a river and rescue work is still going on despite inclement weather. Rejecting criticism from Opposition parties, who questioned his delay in visiting the affected district, Vijayan said he will visit the spot at an appropriate time.

“There is no discrimination between plane crash victims and those affected by landslide. What the government announced in the latter case is only an interim relief and it will be raised further. Some parties are whipping it up unnecessarily to create confusion among people,” he said.

Opposition Congress and BJP had questioned discrepancy in relief in twin tragedies that struck Kerala on Friday. While the CM had announced Rs 10 lakh relief for families of the dead in the plane crash, landslide victims were given only Rs 2 lakh. But Vijayan said the government will ensure rehabilitation of affected plantation workers. He also said rescue work will continue till the recovery of the last body.

But an official of the Kannan Devan Hills Plantation Limited, which owns the estate, said it will be difficult to ascertain exact number of people trapped in the landslide as some houses had guests and children, studying outside Idukki, who came home due to the lockdown. The official cited that few who died were not on company’s records, indicating that the toll may go up. Most of the victims hail from south Tamil Nadu districts but are settled in plantation areas for work for more than two generations.