COIMBATORE: The driver of a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) bus died and its conductor sustained fractures after their vehicle was buried by a landslide caused by heavy rain near Burliar on the Mettupalayam-Coonoor Ghat Road late on Friday night.The deceased driver has been identified as Janagaraj, 55, of Katteri near Coonoor. Conductor Kesavan, 38, of Kotagiri was rescued and admitted to Mettupalayam Government Hospital on Saturday.The bus going from Ooty to Coimbatore had suffered a flat tyre near Pudhukkadu in the Nilgiris district, and the passengers numbering around 40 were shifted to another bus. Later, driver Janagaraj and conductor Kesavan were taking the bus to Mettupalayam when torrential rain triggered a landslide around 10pm, burying the vehicle under mounds of earth, boulders and uprooted trees. The landslide happened in Coimbatore district, around 200 metres away from the Nilgiris district border.Six teams from the fire and rescue services from Coimbatore, alongside personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Tamil Nadu Disaster Response Force (TNDRF), were deployed. They battled the difficult terrain through the night to clear the debris. They reached the crushed bus around 5am on Saturday and retrieved Janagaraj’s body and rescued Kesavan. “Reaching the site proved arduous due to back-to-back landslides along the eight km stretch,” said Coimbatore district collector Pavankumar G. Giriyappanavar.Continuous downpours triggered landslides at more than 19 locations on the ghat road. More than 300 people, including students from Kerala who were on a trip to the Nilgiris, were stranded due to the landslides. They were rescued by rescue teams on Saturday morning.Burliar recorded the highest rainfall in the Nilgiris at 250 mm, followed by Kil Kotagiri Estate (200 mm). Vehicular traffic was crippled, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) services were cancelled and schools in six taluks remained shut.The Coonoor–Mettupalayam ghat stretch bore the brunt of the devastation, with a critical 7-8 km corridor completely choked with cascading mud, fallen trees, and dislodged boulders. “Rescuers braved active slide zones to clear pathways and shift stranded travellers to a relief camp at a community hall in Mettupalayam,” Giriyappanavar said.For travellers, the ordeal was harrowing. Babu, an omnibus driver ferrying 40 passengers from Ooty to Bengaluru, recounted a terrifying night: “The TNSTC govt bus was right behind us when the hillside caved in. Uprooted trunks blocked our forward path. We spent hours in total darkness amid torrential rain until rescue teams broke through.”Saravanan, a truck driver from Mettupalayam, noted that another landslip hit the area shortly after the bus was trapped. “A minitruck tipped into the adjacent gorge. Some fellow drivers and I managed to pull the driver out just in time,” he said.On Friday evening, Bhojan, 58, of Sedikkal tribal village near Kotagiri lost his life while he was returning after attending a funeral at Koppaiyur. A swollen mountain stream swept him away. In Theetukal near Ooty, a 100-foot-long, 30-foot-high retaining wall collapsed, flattening two cars and burying six two-wheelers. Emergency personnel pulled watchman Venkatesh, 65, alive from the wreckage.Following inspections by Nilgiris collector Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneeru and superintendent of police S Brinda between Burliar and Coonoor, authorities enforced strict restrictions. All tourist destinations in the Nilgiris have been shut until further notice. Vehicular traffic on the ghat corridors — via both Coonoor and Kotagiri — remains barred between 6pm and 6am for the next three days. Motorists are advised to postpone all non-essential hill travel.Animal husbandry minister S Kamali, minister for backward classes V Sampath Kumar, Coimbatore district Collector Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar, inspector general of police (West Zone) RV Ramya Bharathi, Coimbatore district superintendent of police A Pavan Kumar and officials from various departments were involved in the rescue operations.
