Keonjhar: Three persons died after being buried under a mudslide triggered by heavy rain while allegedly engaged in illegal manganese mining near Bichakundi Dalpahar under Joda police limits in Odisha’s Keonjhar district on Tuesday night.
The victims have been identified as Sandeep Purti (25), Guru Champia (18), and Kande Munda (19), all residents of Bichakundi village in Joda block.
According to sources, a section of loose soil gave way while the trio, who worked as daily wage labourers, was extracting manganese illegally within the Baitarani reserve forest area. The bodies were recovered after a gruelling eight-hour rescue operation as incessant heavy rainfall significantly hampered the efforts, and and sent to Joda health facility for postmortem.
“The incident happened when they were extracting manganese from the forest area. Further investigation is ongoing,” said Joda police station IIC Sushanta Pradhan.
