Hill Collapse: Army Leaves Koraput After Completing Task Of Retrieving Bodies

Jeypore: The Army Engineering Team, which worked hard to retrieve bodies of two workers buried in heap of boulders on the hills near Bariput village in Odisha’s Koraput district, left for Ranchi on Thursday.

While body of one of the JCB operators was recovered on June 10, the other was dug out on Thursday evening and handed over to the family members, who recognized him as Sanjay Das. The Army succeeded in its efforts after conducting a series of dynamite blasts.

The body had decomposed and was beyond recognition. However, the family members recognized him from his outfit and the identity card. After post-mortem, the body was taken to Khuntakata village of Athagarh block in Cuttack district for cremation.

After the recovery of the body of JCB operator, Ghanashyam Guru of Deogarh district, earlier, the rescue operation had to be stopped due to heavy rain.

As it became difficult to dismantle huge boulders through control blasting, the Army on June 13 had sought permission from the district administration and the police to go for dynamite blasting, which finally paid off.

The two JCB operators were engaged in excavating boulders for the ongoing Telengiri Irrigation project near Bariput when a portion of the hill suddenly caved in around 5 pm on May 31.

The district administration had started the rescue operation on June 1 with the help of the ODRAF team and the fire tenders. However, the teams failed to remove the huge boulders and hence the NDRF team from Mundali in Cuttack was pressed into the rescue work. However, it did not have heavy duty machinery to remove the huge boulders weighing up to 20-50 tonnes.

As a last resort, the administration had sought the help of the Army. Following the request, an Army Engineering Team from Ranchi arrived at Bariput on June 6 and started the rescue operation the following day.