A distraught man who lost five members of his family, including two grandchildren, in the July 19 landslide in Irshalwadi in Raigad district in Maharashtra on Monday said it was better they “rest” in the debris rather than their decomposed bodies be pulled out and cause more pain to him.

Nine members of 65-year-old Kamlu Pardhi’s family were buried in the landslide, with only four managing to survive the ordeal. The four were pulled out by locals and rescue teams.

“My wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren are buried there. Their bodies may now be decomposed, and one cannot even identify them. It is better they rest there,” he told PTI.

Kamlu, a farmer by profession who used to provide home stay service to trekkers who used to come from Mumbai for trekking at Irshalgad, lost his wife, younger son Kashinath, daughter-in-law and his 14-year-old grandson and a 5-year-old granddaughter.

Kamlu was at the foot of the hillock and was returning home when he got to know about the landslide.

On Sunday, the National Disaster Response Force had called off the search-and-rescue operation after managing to recover 27 bodies from the rubble. The rescue operation, which started some time after disaster struck, was carried out manually with the help of volunteers and sniffer dogs as the village is at least an hour away from the nearest motorable road.

Maharashtra minister Uday Samant had told reporters on Sunday that 57 persons were missing, while 144 of the 228 people who were staying in Irshalwadi at the time of the incident were lodged in a nearby temple.

“I can only imagine what might have happened to the five members of my family who could not be saved. I keep remembering the faces of my two grandchildren but what can I do. I am helpless. I had so many dreams for them but it is all over now,” he said.

His son Kashinath was a graduate and served as a gram panchayat member who worked in the village during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kamlu said.

“He was a very helpful man and was always available for villagers. As the search and rescue operation was going on, I continued to hope that all my family members would be pulled out alive. But it was not to be,” he said in a choked voice.

The debris was almost 20 feet high and many of the bodies that were pulled out had started decomposing, and most were identified by kin from their clothes, he said.

“The search and rescue operation were called off after consent was taken from villagers as well as the Adivasi Sanghatana. Let those underneath rest where they are,” he said.

He said the Maharashtra government had placed them temporarily in containers doubling up as houses but added that permanent rehabilitation should be carried out close to the village.

“I have three acres of land but no support,” Kamlu Pardhi told PTI.

Sachin Mate, chief of the Raigad unit of the Agari Sena and former village sarpanch, who was involved in the rescue operation immediately after landslide struck, also said rehabilitation must be done as quickly as possible.