India, July 12 -- Pune: Every few minutes, someone would walk up to a police personnel or rescue worker with the same question: "Have you found anyone?" For nearly 81 hours, families of staff trapped in the Moshi garbage depot building collapse remained outside the accident site, refusing to leave despite heavy rain, foul odour and uncertainty. Some spent three nights and four days sleeping in vehicles or under temporary shelters, while others travelled hundreds of kilometres after receiving calls about accident. They waited as excavators removed tonnes of garbage, rescuers searched through unstable debris and officials promised updates. By Saturday night, when the rescue operation completed 81 hours, the wait had ended in heartbreak for many. Rescue teams recovered the bodies of seven staff - Akshay Sawant, Sunil Korake, Sunny Mane, Mahesh Kumbhar, Nagesh Gaikwad, Ranjit Patil and Rahul Gaikwad - between 2.30 pm and 10.20 pm and shifted them to Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital in Pimpri. Their recovery took the death toll in the tragedy to eight. Efforts are underway to locate and rescue one more person. The accident occurred around 1.30 pm on Wednesday when a massive mound of garbage collapsed onto the three-storey administrative building of the waste-to-energy plant operated by Antony Lara Renewable Energy Ltd under an agreement with the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). Most employees had gathered in the first-floor canteen for lunch when the structure gave way under the force of the sliding waste. For those waiting outside, the days that followed were marked by unanswered questions and fading hope.Among them was Nitin Sarwade, brother-in-law of Sunny Mane, who worked as a driver at the facility for the past three years. Mane had left home on Wednesday morning carrying his lunch box, as he did every day. His family later learnt that instead of eating inside his vehicle, as was his usual routine, he had gone to the canteen with his colleagues. That small change in routine proved fatal. "Sunny always ate lunch in his car. We still don't know why he decided to go inside the canteen that day. It was the first time he ate with his colleagues, and it became the last," Sarwade said. Back home, Mane's two children - aged seven and two - kept asking when their father would return. "We kept moving between the accident site and the hospital looking for information. If more machinery had been deployed from the beginning, perhaps he could have been rescued like some of the others," Sarwade said. Mane's body was recovered shortly after 6 pm on Saturday, more than 76 hours after the collapse. For another family, the tragedy came barely weeks after a celebration. Mahesh Kumbhar, who worked as an HR assistant at the company, had married on June 22. His elder brother Santosh was in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar when he received a call from the company's HR department informing him about the collapse. "I immediately called one of Mahesh's colleagues, but later learnt that he too had been injured and admitted to hospital," Santosh recalled. He left for Pune that night and reached Moshi early Thursday morning. Since then, he had spent every day outside the depot waiting for news. "Mahesh had married only last month. We waited here for three days hoping someone would tell us he was safe. Instead, we got the news we feared the most," he said after his brother's body was recovered around 6.10 pm on Saturday. As the rescue operation stretched from hours into days, anxiety among families gradually turned into frustration. Relatives gathered near the entrance of the depot, watching cranes lift twisted concrete and excavators clear mountains of garbage while repeatedly approaching officials for updates. Several complained that there was no dedicated mechanism to keep families informed about the progress of the rescue operation. Many also questioned why heavy machinery was not deployed in larger numbers immediately after the collapse. According to family members, only two excavator machines were initially pressed into service despite the enormous quantity of debris that had to be removed. Additional excavators, Poclain machines and advanced demolition equipment were brought in later to dismantle unstable portions of the building and create access for rescuers. By Saturday afternoon, emotions spilled over. When deputy chief minister and Pune guardian minister Sunetra Pawar visited the site to review the rescue operation, several relatives attempted to approach her convoy to voice their concerns. Police stopped them, leading to heated arguments. Some agitated family members picked up stones and threatened to throw them before senior officers intervened and brought the situation under control. Pawar said the government had monitored the rescue effort from the first day. "The incident is extremely painful and sensitive. Poisonous gases from the garbage mound, continuous rainfall and unstable debris made the operation extremely challenging. Despite these conditions, trained teams and advanced machinery continued the rescue work," she said, adding that the government would conduct an impartial inquiry and take action against those found responsible. Officials maintained that the rescue operation was slowed by factors beyond their control. The unstable structure, continuous rainfall and poisonous gases emanating from the garbage mound posed serious risks to rescuers and required debris removal to be carried out cautiously. For the families outside the depot, however, the inquiry was a matter for another day. For three days, they had waited only for news of their loved ones trapped inside. Sarwade had hoped he would be able to tell Mane's children that their father was coming home.Santosh had travelled overnight believing his younger brother, who had married less than three weeks earlier, would survive. While rescue operations entered the fourth day, for the bereaved families, the tragedy marked the beginning of a loss they will carry for years....