Indian Landslide Toll at 71; Recovery Efforts Continue

Frequently using bare hands, Indian soldiers and firefighters retrieved more bodies Friday from a landslide that buried a shantytown here. The confirmed death toll rose to 71 but was expected to exceed 100.

The rescuers said witnesses estimated that 40 missing people could still be buried.

“There is still a strong smell at the site, so there is a possibility that more bodies are still under the debris,” said Pravin Chheda, a city councilor.

Volunteers sprayed insecticide and eucalyptus oil to fight flies and the stench of decomposing corpses. And authorities ordered 200 masks for relief workers who have been working in shifts to dig out bodies since the landslide struck Wednesday evening.

In Bombay, skies cleared after two days of heavy monsoon rains. Knee-deep water receded, and buses and trains resumed service in the city of nearly 15 million people. But incessant rains continued to lash other parts of the country.

Since Wednesday, the storms have left 135 people dead, including the landslide victims, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

The army rescued more than 3,000 people in Gujarat state, which recorded 22 inches of rain in the past two days, the highest in nearly five decades, the news agency said.

Bulldozers plowed down 40 tin and concrete huts to make a path to the hill where poor migrants had built their homes in Azad Nagar shanty in northeastern Bombay.

As dump trucks loaded with debris lumbered past, relatives huddled near the site to identify and collect battered corpses.

Abdul Miya, 27, offered prayers at the Gaibansha burial ground for two sons lost in the slide.

“I don’t know how I managed to get out. How I wish I had got hold of my sons and pushed them out first,” he said. Miya said he would wait until his wife recovered from her own injuries before telling her about the children.