The death toll in Maharashtra's Malin village landslide tragedy has risen to 51 after NDRF teams recovered more bodies today from the debris despite inclement weather. Our Pune correspondent reports that the NDRF teams engaged in relief operations at Pune's landslide-affected Malin village have so far recovered 51 bodies including that of 24 women,21 men and 6 children.

The inclement weather at the site is creating hurdles for the NDRF teams to remove the bodies from the debris. Besides, bodies under the debris have started decomposing. Despite this NDRF teams are working relentlessly in relief and rescue operations.

The operations are expected to continue for another two to three days.However, the chances of any survivors under the debris are bleak. The District collector Saurabh Rao told AIR that the district administration has taken a decision to temporarily shift 3 to 4 villages coming in the vicinity of the affected site to a safer place in the wake of the tragedy.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, confirming that 51 bodies have been retrieved in the landslide incident, while making a statement in the Lok Sabha today, informed the House that so far, eight of the injured have been taken out safely from the rubble. About 40 to 50 houses caved in due to the landslide with about 158 persons trapped under the debris. Relief operation by nine teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), consisting of 380 personnel, is on despite continues rain.

Home Minister Singh who had visited the village yesterday to review the ongoing relief operation, said that the Centre will provide all possible support to the Maharashtra government to deal with the situation. He said, since the area where the tragedy happened, was never considered as a landslide sensitive zone, he has asked the Geological Survey of India to conduct a scientific study to find out all such areas in the Western Ghats region.

This will help in taking necessary corrective measures in the inhabited areas of the region. The Minister said that as per the 2011 census, the village has a population of 704 people including 666 from Schedule Tribe and 34 from Scheduled Caste communities.

Meanwhile, on the demand of the members from Congress to have a discussion on this incident, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said, since this is a serious issue, the government is ready for discussion.