Her Wait Ended In Heartbreak! Newlywed Engineer Extracted Dead From Wayanad Landslide Rubble After 48-Hour Search

For two agonising days, she refused to give up hope. Every phone call from rescue teams, every movement of excavators and every update from the disaster site carried the possibility that her husband would walk out alive.

Instead, the search ended in silence.

The body of Rahul, a newlywed engineer from Himachal Pradesh trapped beneath tonnes of mud and boulders after the devastating landslide at Kerala's Wayanad tunnel construction site, was recovered on Thursday.

The body of excavator operator Muhammad Imran, a native of Bihar, was also recovered from the site on Thursday, bringing the confirmed death toll to five.

The other three deceased have been identified as Chandraban Pal (37), a Hitachi operator from Madhya Pradesh, Bikas Kumar Singh (40), a foreman from Bihar and Anmol Dodrai (25) from Jharkhand. Three more people are yet to be found.

The rescue operation was launched on Tuesday, when a massive hillside collapsed over the Kalladi tunnel construction site in Meppadi, burying workers within seconds.

A Wife's Hope Turns Into Heartbreak

Rahul Sharma, an engineer, hailed from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. Rahul and Kalpana were married on February 21. Kalpana had spent nearly 48 hours clinging to hope as rescue teams battled rain, unstable terrain and mountains of debris.

With every passing hour, that hope faded.

When rescuers finally reached him, it was no longer a rescue mission. It had become a recovery operation.

The Video That Foretold The Tragedy

The recovery comes two days after CCTV footage from the construction site went viral across social media, showing the terrifying seconds before disaster struck.

The chilling visuals captured an entire hillside collapsing onto the tunnel site with frightening speed, engulfing road, heavy machinery and workers under a torrent of mud, rocks and dust.

The footage showed there was virtually no time for those near the site to escape, explaining the scale of destruction that followed.

WATCH the video here:

A Disaster Triggered By Relentless Rain

The landslide struck the tunnel construction site at Kalladi in Meppadi grama panchayat on July 7 after incessant rainfall weakened the hillside.

Officials said workers were buried beneath 7 to 10 feet of mud and giant boulders, making rescue efforts extremely difficult.

Teams from multiple agencies have been working around the clock, using heavy earthmovers and specialised equipment to clear debris while carefully searching for those still believed to be trapped.

Another Family's Dream Ends Too Soon

Among the other victims was Anmol Dodrai, a young migrant worker from Jharkhand who had travelled to Kerala just five months ago hoping to lift his family out of poverty.

His elder sister, Premlata, recalled that Anmol had left home with dreams of earning enough to build a house and save for his marriage.

Instead, his body was flown back to Ranchi on Thursday before being taken to his native village for his final rites.

"We came to know only later that he was no more," she said, recalling the devastating phone call that changed the family's life forever.

Search Still On

With the two bodies recovered today, the death toll has now risen to five, while rescue teams continue combing through the unstable debris for those still missing.

For the waiting families, every recovered body closes one chapter, but opens another filled with grief.

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