Rescuers recover more bodies from Indonesia landslide
Improved weather conditions helped rescuers on Indonesia’s main island of Java find more bodies as they searched for scores of people missing in a landslide that killed more than two dozen villagers.
A pre-dawn landslide at the foot of Mount Burangrang in West Java province on Saturday destroyed about 34 houses in Pasir Langu village.
On Sunday, 72 people were still missing; Many were feared to be buried under tons of mud, rocks and uprooted trees. Approximately 230 residents living near the site were evacuated to government shelters.
Ade Dian Permana, who heads the local search and rescue office, said a search team of 250 people collected the remains of the victims in 14 body bags on Sunday, bringing the number of those rescued to 25. They will be handed over to their relatives after their identities are determined by forensic experts.
Videos released by the search agency showed rescuers pulling a body out of mud using farm tools and bare hands. Loose soil on the hillside prevented the deployment of heavy equipment, Permana said. He estimated mounds of mud were to be up to five meters high, saying “our teams must move carefully”.
“Some houses are buried down to roof level,” he said.
Mohammed Syafii, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said teams also used drones and K-9s to locate bodies along the landslide, which stretched for more than two kilometers.
Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who visited the region on Sunday, vowed that authorities would take measures to prevent similar disasters. He called on local authorities in the western Bandung district to “address the issue of land conversion in disaster-prone areas”, including ways to reduce risks.
Environmental activists had previously said that the deadly landslide in West Bandung district was not just a natural disaster triggered by heavy rain, but also the result of years of environmental degradation due to land conversion for development purposes that violated land use rules in the area.
Wahyudin Iwang of Walhi West Java, an Indonesian environmental group, said Saturday’s landslide – which occurred while residents were sleeping – reflected long-standing neglect of spatial planning regulations in the North Bandung District (KBU), a conservation zone of about 38,543 hectares in four cities and districts in West Java, including West Bandung.
He said the protected mountainous region serves as a critical water catchment area and environmental buffer for the Bandung Basin, one of Indonesia’s most densely populated regions.
“This landslide is an accumulation of activities that are not compatible with spatial planning and environmental functions,” Iwang said.
Villagers gathered at a makeshift aid center reading updated lists of missing persons and awaiting news of relatives.
Rescue officials said the operation would continue uninterrupted as long as conditions permitted, but warned that more rain could further destabilize the slope.
In Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains, seasonal rains and high tides from October to April frequently cause floods and landslides.
