India landslide death toll reaches 150 as rain Hampers rescue efforts

• Despite the rescue efforts, large areas remain to be explored and searched for live people.
• The landslides inundated homes and scattered debris around the disaster site.
• Over 3,000 people are sheltering in emergency relief camps around Wayanad district.

Relentless downpours and howling winds hampered the search for survivors of landslides that struck Indian tea plantations on Wednesday, killing at least 150 people, most of whom are believed to be laborers and their families. Torrential monsoon rains have battered the southern coastal state of Kerala for days, and blocked roads into the Wayanad district disaster area have complicated relief efforts.

With the only bridge connecting the worst-hit villages of Chooralmala and Mundakkai washed away, rescue teams had to use a makeshift zipline to cart bodies on stretchers out of the disaster zone over raging floodwaters. Several people who had managed to escape the initial impact of the landslides ended up trapped in a nearby river that had burst its banks, volunteer rescuer Arun Dev told AFP at a hospital treating survivors.

“Those who escaped were swept away along with houses, temples, and schools,” he said.

Senior police officer M.R. Ajith Kumar told AFP that rescue teams had saved around 500 people since successive landslides struck before dawn on Tuesday.

“So far we have got more than 150 bodies,” he said.

“Still large areas are to be explored and searched to find out whether live people are there or not.”

Wayanad is renowned for its tea estates that crisscross its hilly countryside, relying on a large pool of laborers for planting and harvesting. A powerful wall of brown sludge inundated several brick-walled row homes built to accommodate seasonal workers while they and their families slept inside. Other buildings were coated with mud as the force of the landslide scattered cars, corrugated iron, and other debris around the disaster site.

“Catastrophic debris flows are extremely violent, so survival is very difficult,” Hull University earth scientist Dave Petley told AFP.

“This will have been exacerbated by the timing — in the early hours when people were asleep — and by flimsy structures that offered little protection.”

The state government reported that more than 3,000 people were sheltering in emergency relief camps around Wayanad district. State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that at least 572 millimeters (22.5 inches) of rain had fallen in the two days leading up to the landslides.

Kerala’s disaster agency forecasted more rain and strong winds for Thursday, warning of the potential for “damage to unsafe structures” elsewhere in the state. Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who until recently represented Wayanad in parliament, said he had been unable to proceed with his planned visit to the disaster area.

“Due to incessant rains and adverse weather conditions, we have been informed by authorities that we will not be able to land,” he said in a post on social media platform X.

“Our thoughts are with the people of Wayanad at this difficult time,” he added.

Monsoon rains across the region from June to September provide relief from the summer heat and play a crucial role in replenishing water supplies. These rains are vital for agriculture, supporting the livelihoods of millions of farmers and ensuring food security for nearly two billion people in South Asia. However, they also bring regular destruction. In recent years, the number of fatal floods and landslides has increased, with experts attributing the worsening problem to climate change.

“Events like landslides, they are part of these climate-change-triggered heavy rainfall disasters,” Kartiki Negi of the Indian environment think tank Climate Trends told AFP.

“India will continue to see more and more of these kinds of impacts in the future,” she added.

Damming, deforestation, and development projects in India have also worsened the human toll. India’s worst landslide in recent decades occurred in 1998, when heavy monsoon rains triggered rockfalls that killed at least 220 people and buried the small village of Malpa in the Himalayas.

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