Missing Odisha doctor’s kin await radar results

BHUBANESWAR: Family members of Dr Swadheen Panda, missing in the Wayanad landslide, are pinning hopes on examination of the affected areas by sophisticated detection radars, to find him.

Director of Odisha Parivar Dilip Routrai said Wayanad collector Meghashree DR informed them that these advanced radars have been brought in from Siachen and will be put into use from Sunday by the Indian Army to detect any signal of life or bodies buried in the worst-affected areas like Chooralmala and Mundakkai. Dr Swadheen was in Chooralmala when the landslide took place.

His sister Somali Panda, who has been camping in Wayanad since Wednesday, said she has been visiting Meppadi where bodies and mutilated body parts have been kept in two facilities, to identify Dr Swadheen but there has been no luck.

“Besides, I along with the Odisha government team camping here are visiting Chooralmala which was his last location, every day. But, he has not been traced yet. The magnitude of devastation is such that finding a life or a body underneath the rubble becomes very difficult. We are hoping that these advanced radar systems help in tracing him,” she said. The search operation entered its fifth day on Saturday.