Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)
Bantwal, Jul 11: A boy got trapped under the mud when a hillock located in the rear side of a house belonging to Hanif at Kunjattakala in Pudu village in the taluk suffered landslide on the night of Thursday July 9. Heavy, incessant rain caused this landslide.
Hanif's son, Muhammed Arshad (7), a first standard student of the local school, lost his life in this tragedy.
The boy, who was observing Ramadan fast, had broken his fast in the evening and visited the toilet located at the back of the house when the hillock had begun to suffer landslide. The family members, expecting danger, rushed out of the house from the front door. The boy was coming out of the toilet when a huge mound of mud got deposited on him, burying him under its weight completely.
The family, supported by neighbours, dug out the mud and retried the boy from under it. He was immediately taken to a hospital, but had already lost his life. As electric poles also had crashed during this incident, power went off, creating bottlenecks for the early rescue of the trapped boy.
It is believed that water would have got accumulated in the protective wall built of stone to support a recently concreted road on the other side of the house during the last two days. The wall have collapsed under the weight and pressure of water. A few families in the neighbourhood, sensing danger after observing that the hillock was slipping, vacated their houses overnight.
Arshad, fifth of six children of Hanif, was intelligent, and was performing very well at school.
The house of Hanif has exhaustively been damaged due to the landslide, and the tiled roof has been completely demolished. Clothes, utensils and other belongings of the family got trapped in mud and suffered damage. Tahsildar, Purandar Hegde and revenue officials have estimated the loss at three lac rupees. The tahsildar said he has recommended to the government to disburse compensation of four lac rupees to the family, for which is eligible as per rules.
In addition to several local leaders, state health minister, U T Khader, visited the spot on Friday and instructed revenue officials to follow up with the concerned and sanction compensation to the family at the earliest. Apart from promising to extend all possible support on behalf of the government for re-building the destroyed house, he asked officials to immediately conduct temporary repair of the destroyed road.
Zilla panchayat vice president, Satish Kumpala, member, Jayashree, and many visited the family.