Manipur landslide death toll rises to 50; 11 still missing

Heavy rainfall destroys paddy fields at Liyai and Tungjoy villages bordering Nagaland

Our Correspondent
Imphal, July 9 (EMN): The death toll of Manipur landslide has gone up to 50 after one more body was recovered from the debris on the tenth day of search operation for survivors, officials said on July 9.

The landslide took place at railway construction camp at Marangching part 5 areas, about 75 west of the state capital, on the midnight of June 29.

The landslide also hit 107 Territorial Army (TA) camps of the Indian army deployed at the area for protecting the construction site.

A senior state government official who is monitoring the situation from Noney district headquarters when contacted informed that the search team recovered one more body adding that the search will continue as 11 are still untraceable.

Among the 18 injured persons who were rescued from ground zero on the first day of the search, seven of them are presently undergoing treatment at the Assam Rifles multispeciality hospital at Mantripukhri on the outskirts of Imphal.

In another development, a large portion of paddy fields at Liyai and Tungjoy villages in Manipur’s Senapati district which borders Nagaland, have been destroyed by the excess water and subsequent landslides following intense rainfall on July 7 and the 8th, the Chairman DK Isaac Caasi of Liyai Khullen village  said.

The mudslide/landslide hit paddy fields of the village could produce a minimum of 40 to 50 barns of paddy during the normal season, he said while adding that no human casualty was reported during the incident.

Notably the recent landslide at Marangching village part 5 in Noney district also completely destroyed paddy fields measuring around 12 hectares of Charoi Pandongba village.

On July 8, two women were killed while around seven others sustained injury, four of them critical after a pick-up truck hit by a landslide near Saihum village, along Churachandpur-Tipaimukh road under Henglep subdivision in Manipur’s Churachandpur district which borders Myanmar and Mizoram.