The death toll from a series of landslides in the southern Indian state of Kerala has risen to 166 and about 200 people are still missing, in one of the worst disasters the state has suffered in years.
Two consecutive massive landslides occurred in the hilly areas of Wayanad on Tuesday midnight, washing away and crushing hundreds of houses.
The landslides occurred after steep terrain was hit by five times the normal amount of rain, with some areas recording more than 300 mm (1 foot) of rain in 24 hours.
Heavy rains caused the Elbajanj river to overflow and change course, sending water into hundreds of people’s homes, flooding entire villages and destroying several tea and cardamom plantations.
Hundreds of workers joined rescue efforts on Wednesday to pull bodies from the mud and rubble but were hampered by bad weather and poor access after major roads and bridges were washed away in the disaster. At the end of the second day of rescue efforts, some 190 people were still missing or unidentified, including children, and fears for their survival were fading.
Indian troops evacuated more than 5,500 people, including hundreds of stranded tourists, from the area and placed them in dozens of relief camps amid continuing heavy rains.
The disaster sparked a political row after India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said the opposition Kerala state government had been warned about the risk of landslides in the region due to heavy monsoon rains.
“Teams had been sent to Kerala in advance. The Kerala government failed to evacuate the people in time,” Shah told the Assembly on Wednesday. However, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the red alert was issued after the landslides had occurred and now was not the time to play “blame games”.
Jayant, a resident of Choralumala village, one of the worst-hit areas, told The Indian Express that 11 members of his family were still missing. “Only three bodies have been found so far and the rest are still missing,” he said.
The climate crisis has led to periods of unusually heavy rainfall, making landslides more frequent in Kerala during the monsoon season, wreaking havoc in the state’s hilly areas.
Environmentalists also warn that the problem is being exacerbated by increased housing construction on unstable hillsides and deforestation to make way for plantations, which are destabilizing the soil and making the area more vulnerable to landslides.
