Wayanad landslide: Helicopter-borne Army team airlifts four bodies from Soochipara waterfalls

Indian Army officers airlift bodies near Soochipara Waterfalls for post-mortem

Helicopter-borne Indian Army officers winched up four bodies found by a Forest Department’s search-and-resce team near the remote Soochipara Waterfalls in the forested Sun Rise Valley in the Wayanad district on Saturday (August 10, 2024).

They will fly the bodies, including a badly mangled one, to a morgue in Sultan Battery for post-mortem examination and identification using the latest forensic DNA fingerprinting techniques. 

The Soochipara Waterfalls is a little away from the landslide-hit localities in Vythiri taluk in the Wayanad district. 

The team had discovered the bodies washed up on the rocks near Kanthanpara, a rapid downstream of Soochipara Falls, on Friday (August 9, 2024). However, the rugged terrain and crosswinds hampered the airlift operations, which resumed on Saturday (August 10, 2024).

Officials suspect more bodies of the victims, washed downstream from landslide-hit Chooralmala, Mundakkai, and Attamala areas, could remain trapped in the overhang of bushes, water, reeds, gnarled tree roots and boulders on the edges of the waterfall and rapids in the remote and densely forested Sun Rise Valley. 

Earlier, the government had said the search operation in Sun Rise Valley would cover either side downstream of Soochipara waterfalls till the Chaliyar River in the Malappuram district. 

Forest enforcers also scoured forested Parappanpara and Kalakkan Puzha Rivers downstream of the disaster zone. They had reached the locality, negotiating a switchback of rugged hills and forested valleys.