Three women buried alive after hill caves near Odisha’s Kolab dam

JEYPORE: Three women were buried alive in a landslide near Kolab reservoir under Badakeranga panchayat in Koraput on Saturday.

The mishap occurred when a group of daily wage workers were engaged in digging soil from a hill.

Police identified the deceased as Champa Badanaik, Purni Badanaik and Sanmati Jani, all residents of Salmanguda under Badakeranga panchayat. All the three victims were about 18 years of age.

Over a dozen labourers had been carried to the hillside on tractors to dig soil used in construction work. During extraction of soil, a portion of the hill caved in and the trio was buried under the debris.

Other labourers and locals rushed to the spot to rescue them but failed. By the time they were rescued by the police and local administration, two women had perished while the third victim was critically injured. She also succumbed on her way to Koraput medical college. Koraput MLA Raghuram Macha rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. He said strict action will be taken after the investigation.

Kolab Nangar police registered a case and began probe. Koraput SDPO Srabani Nayak informed that postmortem of all deceased was complete and the process to hand over the bodies to their family members was underway. “We have registered a case in this connection and further investigation is on”, the SDPO said.

Sources said mining mafia from different parts of Koraput district are active to extract soil from hills by Kolab reservoir. Using locals, they extract soil and use trucks to transport from the hills right under the nose of the administration.

The continuous showers in the last few days had left the soil mass of the hills loose which may have led to the landslide.