Dr Chinara’s body reaches home

Bhubaneswar: The body of an Odisha doctor, who died in the devastating landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad district two days after celebrating his birthday there, reached home on Saturday evening.

Dr Bishnu Prasad Chinara, his wife and two others, Dr Swadhin Panda and Sikruti Mohapatra, reached Wayanad on July 27 where Chinara celebrated his birthday.

They were asleep in the hotel when the devastating landslide swept them away at around 2 am on July 29, officials said. Panda is missing, while Chinara’s wife and Sikruti are undergoing treatment in a hospital in Kerala.

Chinara’s body was brought back to his home in Housing Board Colony in Cuttack Choudwar in a special ambulance. His friends, relatives and others paid their last respects.

Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari had earlier said that the doctor’s body was being brought by road as there was no direct flight from Kochi.

Meanwhile, family and friends are anxiously waiting for the news of Dr Swadhin Panda, a native of Bhubaneswar, who went missing after the landslide hit a village in Wayanad where he was staying as a tourist.

According to Akanksha Mohanty, a friend of Dr Panda, he was accompanied by three others, including a couple, when the landslide struck their resort in a village in the hill district.

There has been no information on Dr Panda’s whereabouts since the landslide. A senior Kerala government official has assured that an intense search operation is underway to locate Dr Panda, a resident doctor.

Akanksha, who is working in Chennai, expressed concern over Dr Panda’s safety, and said that her husband, Suman Saurabh Mohanty, is a childhood friend of

the missing doctor.