Rescuers in India’s Kerala search for survivors, bodies after landslides kill 166
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A drone view shows a landslide site in the hills in Wayanad district, in the southern state of Kerala, India on July 31.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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CHOORALMALA, India – Soldiers and rescuers walked through slush and rocks under steady rain, looking for survivors and bodies in the hills of India’s Kerala state on July 31, a day after at least 166 people were killed in monsoon landslides.
Nearly 1,000 people had been rescued from hillside villages and tea and cardamom estates in Wayanad district, and 225 were still missing, the authorities said on July 31.
They said at least 166 people died and 195 were injured, while the local Asianet News TV channel put the death toll at 179.
Heavy rain in Kerala, one of India’s most attractive tourist destinations, led to the landslides early on July 30, sending torrents of mud, water and tumbling boulders downhill and burying or sweeping people away to their deaths as they slept.
It was the worst disaster in the state since deadly floods in 2018.
Experts said the area had been receiving heavy rain in the last two weeks which softened the soil and that extremely heavy rainfall on July 29 triggered the landslides.
The Indian Army said it rescued 1,000 people and has begun the process of constructing an alternative bridge after the main bridge linking the affected area of Mundakkai to the nearest town of Chooralmala was destroyed.
Near the site where the bridge was washed away, an excavator was slowly removing trees and boulders from a mound of debris.
“We are quite sure there are multiple bodies here,” said Mr Hamsa T.A., a fire and rescue worker, pointing to the debris. “There were many houses here, people living inside (are) missing.”
The landslides mostly occurred on the upper slopes of hills, then cascaded to the valley below, Mr M.R. Ajith Kumar, a top state police officer, told Reuters.
“(The) focus right now is to search the entire uphill area for stranded people and recover as many bodies (as possible).”
Nearly 350 of the 400 registered houses in the affected region have been damaged, Asianet reported, citing district officials.
After a day of extremely heavy rainfall that hampered rescue operations, the weather department expected some respite on July 31, although the area was likely to receive rain throughout the day.
The Indian Navy said its disaster relief team had reached the area on the night of July 30 and search-and-rescue helicopters were deployed early on July 31, but “adverse weather conditions due to incessant rains” posed challenges.
It was the worst disaster in the state since deadly floods in 2018.
PHOTO: REUTERS
India has witnessed extreme weather in recent years, from torrential rain and floods to droughts and cyclones, blamed by some experts on climate change.
The region hit by the landslides was forecast to receive 204mm of rainfall but ended up getting 572mm over 48 hours, Kerala’s Chief Minister said on July 30.
“The Arabian Sea is warming at a higher rate compared with other regions and sending more evaporation into the atmosphere, making the region a hotspot for deep convective clouds,” said Dr S. Abhilash, head of the Advanced Centre for Atmospheric Radar Research at Kerala’s Cochin University of Science and Technology.
“Deep developed clouds in the south-east Arabian Sea region were carried by winds towards land and produced this havoc,” he told Reuters. REUTERS
