Man killed after uprooted tree falls on car, mother-daughter buried in landslide
By Cosmos Sangma
Tura, Oct 6: The death toll from the monsoon fury in Garo Hills has risen to 15 after three more people were killed in East Garo Hills district after a night of heavy rains on Saturday.
A man was killed when a tree got uprooted and fell on his car during a storm in Songsak reserve forest area late Saturday night.
In another incident, a mother and daughter asleep in their house were buried alive after a mudslide in Rongjeng area of the district.
The mudslide occured in Gongdop village under Rongjeng police station jurisdiction.
“The incident happened during the wee hours of the morning when tons of mud from a hill behind their house came down and covered their house. Their bodies have been recovered and send for medical examination,” informed East Garo Hills SP A S Rynjah.
The accident at Songsak took place shortly after midnight when the man Thenseng R Marak and two other woman occupants, driving towards Rongjeng from Dalu in West Garo Hills, encountered a powerful storm in the Songsak reserve forest area.
Their vehicle, a Renault Kiger ML08 J 1279, was passing Rongre near the Sub Forest Bear House on national highway 127B, when the tree fell on their vehicle killing Thenseng on the spot. He hailed from Thibapara area of Dalu.
The two relatives of the victim in the vehicle, Sengrikchi D Sangma (29 years) and Clarinda D Sangma (27 years), both sisters and residents of Dalu Thibapara, were left grieviously injured. They were initially provided basic medical treatment at Songsak PHC and later taken to Williamangar hospital.
These are the first cases of casualty from the monsoon fury in the East Garo Hills district.
On Friday 12 people lost their lives in separate land slides and flooding in South and West Garo Hills.
A family of 7 were buried alive in a mudslide in Hatisia Songmong village of Gasuapara, two women and a child were killed in landslides in Dalu, and a father and son duo remain missing after their vehicle was swept away by the Bugai river in Dimapara.
