Bhanjanagar, Ganjam (Odisha): Twelve people are still untraced after a rain-triggered landslide hit Gidipabali, a hilltop village under Baibali panchayat in Ganjam district's Bhanjanagar block, officials said on Saturday. The landslide, triggered by incessant rain from Cyclone Arnab, was among 10 such incidents reported during the heavy rain in southern Odisha, where hundreds of villages have been inundated.
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Special Relief Commissioner Rajesh P Patil said the village was home to 26 people: 13 managed to escape, while 13 others went missing. One of the missing has since been traced and rescued alive, leaving 12 still untraced. The Special Relief Commissioner's office identified the rescued woman as elderly villager Tarabati Pradhan. The search operation has been under way since Friday night.
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Patil said 170 personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and the Special Operation Group have been deployed to locate the missing people. The 13 villagers who escaped took shelter at a relief centre near G Udaygiri in neighbouring Kandhamal district; Kandhamal collector Vedbhusan said two children were among them.
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Survivors described a huge mass of sludge coming down the hill and burying houses. 'Some of us managed to run away from the place, and others were following us. But they could not reach here,' survivor Rinima Mallik said at the relief centre, according to PTI. Another survivor, Soudamini Mallik, said some of her relatives were still missing and appealed to the administration to save them, adding that all those who survived had sustained injuries after being hit by stones. G Udayagiri Block Development Officer Satyanarayan Mishra said two injured women, Samita Mallik and Manima Pradhan, had been shifted to a health centre.
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The SRC said on Saturday that four people have died in the current flood and rain situation in Odisha: three in a separate landslide at Raikia in Kandhamal district — a couple and their nine-month-old son, reported earlier — and one person in Gajapati district. The Gidipabali missing are separate from that toll, and no deaths have been confirmed at Gidipabali so far.
Source: Odisha Ray
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said rescue and relief operations had been intensified in flood-affected districts, including Ganjam, with the safety and well-being of residents given top priority. 'People are being shifted to safer locations, while essential facilities are ensured at relief camps. The administration and rescue teams remain actively engaged in providing all possible assistance to those affected,' Majhi said in a social media post. Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik said on X he was deeply saddened by the landslides and urged the government to swiftly ensure all necessary steps for the rescue of the missing and the restoration of normal life.
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Ganjam district collector V Keerthi Vasan said relief work had been accelerated in Aska and other parts of the district and that the overall situation was improving in Aska, adding that 10 drinking water tankers and around 30,000 bottles had been distributed by Friday evening. Search teams remain engaged at Gidipabali, and the administration is continuing rescue and relief work across the rain-affected districts. This is a developing story and the missing count may change as the search proceeds.
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