IMPHAL, August 2: In the backdrop of washing away of Joumal village under Khangbarol sub-division in Chandel district in a massive landslide on August 1, a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) landed at Tulihal Airport last night to support the rescue efforts while Assam Rifles had been trying to send troops through the night at Joumal location, sources said.
The sources informed that as per preliminary recce, the troops could not be sent at night and they started out at 4 am. The NDRF team tried to reach via helicopter at the said village but was not able to reach the village till 2 pm. There was a complete communication loss at the village site due to landslides in the vicinity of the village. The information from the site was filtering at a very slow rate.
Notwithstanding this disruption of lines of communication and damage to their own infrastructure, Assam Rifles troops of Joupi and Sajik Tampak battalions of the 28 Sector Assam Rifles under aegis of the IGAR (S) responded to the situation by launching foot columns into the general area today morning and also carried out aerial efforts at the site.
The AR troops after confirming the site are providing security and assisting the rescue efforts being carried out by the NDRF team, it added.
The AR team was able to rescue three persons at 12 pm after aerial efforts. The rescued persons are identified as chief of Joumal village Robert Hamlet Paite 47 son of Lamkhajong Paite; Shekhow Paite, 37 son of Namthong Paite and Thongmang Paite, 40 son of Sonkhojang Paite.
The village chief said that it has been reported that there were 23 houses and 18 occupants when landslide occurred at 8 am yesterday, but the village has only 10 houses. The total population of the village according to him is 74.
He also said that six others also escaped and search for them is on. As of now, there are six survivors of the landslide including Mangkholet Baite, son of Ngehkang Baite, who reached Aibol Joupi yesterday and Mongpu Paite and Nagmandel Paite who reached Chamol post. The three others were rescued today.
The two who came to Chamol said that ten houses with 18 occupants came under landslide. So a total of ten houses and 18 were missing out of which six are rescued. Four bodies have been recovered by the combined effort of Assam Rifles and NDRF. A total eight people are still missing, the sources said.