(Reuters) – Rescue workers began looking for people trapped under debris early on Wednesday, a day after landslides caused havoc in the Wayanad district of India’s Kerala state, with at least 151 people dead and many still missing.
Heavy rain in one of India’s most attractive tourist destinations collapsed hillsides and triggered torrents of mud, water and tumbling boulders in the worst disaster in the state since deadly floods in 2018.
Most of the 350 families living in the area surrounded by tea and cardamom estates were caught unaware by the landslides early on Tuesday morning.
At least 151 people died and 187 were still missing, the state chief minister’s spokesman, P.M. Manoj, told Reuters by phone.
Television visuals showed many houses destroyed and trees uprooted, as rescuers were pulled by ropes across muddy streams of water.
The government was considering making a portable, prefabricated Bailey bridge to connect the affected area, after the main bridge to the nearest town of Chooralmala was destroyed, K. Rajan, the state revenue minister told Asianet TV.
After a day of extremely heavy rainfall that hampered rescue operations, the weather department expects some respite on Wednesday, although the area is likely to receive rain through the day.
Torrential Rains in India
“There are still people who are trapped under the ground and those who have been swept away,” Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters. “The rescue operation will continue with all possible strength and means.”
Chief Minister Vijayan said that many people had been moved out of the area before the landslides due to the heavy rain and this had helped reduce the toll.
The region was forecast to get 204 millimetres of rainfall but ended up getting 572 millimetres over a period of 48 hours, he said, adding that in the wake of “climate change … rainfall and other natural disasters are sometimes unpredictable”.
More rains were forecast across the state for the next several days, he said, and urged people to take precautions.
In 2018, Kerala experienced its worst flooding in nearly a century, resulting in the tragic loss of nearly 500 lives.
India’s most devastating landslide in recent decades occurred in 1998. Triggered by heavy monsoon rains, the rockfalls killed at least 220 people and buried the small Himalayan village of Malpa.
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