Rescuers Up Against All Odds To Help Devastated Manipur Village

In the first pictures of a flood-ravaged village of Manipur, all that can be seen is a green tarpaulin roof. Rains and landslides seem to have washed away everything else.

Battling incessant rain and ravaged terrain, rescue workers are still struggling to get help to Joumol village where at least 20 people are feared dead after an entire section of the settlement was buried by a massive landslide and flood on Saturday.

After more than a day of work, rescuers have managed to extract six survivors and find four dead bodies from the settlement on the Indo-Myanmar border. At least 10 houses have been washed away.

More than 70 people are already believed to have died in the floods that have hit East Indian states of Manipur, Odisha and West Bengal.

“Joumol is a very remote village, dominated by the Kuki tribe. Initial reports suggest that around 20 people must have been washed away by the landslides,” said a top official of the Chandel district.

The Assam Rifles, who were the first responders to the disaster in the village, rescued three survivors including the chief of the village. The paramilitary force has sent in more than 100 soldiers to help with the operations.

The total population of the village was 74 but many people were not present when the landslide struck, an Assam Rifles official said quoting the village chief.

Several attempts by the National Disaster Response Force, the Assam Rifles and the district administration to reach the village have been thwarted by incessant rains and difficult terrain, officials said.

“Our first rescue team reached Joumol on Sunday afternoon. So far there is no report about rescuing any survivors by NDRF, but four dead bodies have been recovered,” said SK Shastri, a senior member of the NDRF.

Members of the NDRF managed to reach the village after being airlifted 20 km short of Joumol, followed by a three-hour trek.