After two days of search operations, the body of a 2-year-old girl was unearthed from the Idukki landslides which has claimed almost 70 lives. And it was Koovi, a dog that has been waiting for days at the site of the landslide, that helped rescuers reach Dhanushka’s mortal remains.
Ever since the fatal landslides buried houses of tea plantation workers at the Rajamalai hills on Friday, reporters at the site had found Koovi and two other dogs running around frantically, perhaps to find their owners and their homes in the rubble.
"I was there at the spot while Dhanushka’s body was being retrieved. The dog seemed to be upset. There is a bridge named Cemet bridge. Her body was found near a tree under the bridge. It was lying in the river which flows through Pettimudi. The dog caught the smell and helped the rescue workers find the baby’s body," Idukki MP Dean Kuriakose told TNM.