Landslides triggered by relentless monsoon rains have struck tea plantations in the southern Kerala state, killing at least 63 people, with at least 250 others rescued from mud and debris, officials said.
The landslides occurred near Meppadi in the district of Wayanad at about 2 am on Tuesday (20:30 GMT on Monday), cutting off at least four villages.
Rescue efforts were hampered by blocked roads in the disaster area. State revenue minister K Rajan’s office confirmed the death toll to reporters. District official D R Meghasree noted that another 125 people were hospitalized for treatment.
Wayanad is renowned for its tea estates crisscrossing its hilly countryside, which rely on a large pool of casual laborers for planting and harvest.
Local media reported that most of the victims were tea estate workers. Television footage showed rescue workers making their way through mud and uprooted trees to reach those who had been stranded. Vehicles swept off the roads were seen stuck in a swollen river.
Authorities mobilized helicopters to aid rescue efforts, and the Indian Army was roped in to build a temporary bridge after landslides destroyed a main bridge linking the affected area. “We are trying every way to rescue our people,” state Health Minister Veena George said.
Images published by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) showed rescue crews trudging through mud to search for survivors and carry bodies on stretchers out of the area.
“My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones and prayers with those injured,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on the social media platform X, adding that families of victims would receive a compensation payment of $2,400 (200,000 rupees).
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who until recently represented Wayanad in parliament, told lawmakers that the scope of the devastation was “heartbreaking.”
He emphasized the alarming rise in landslides in recent years and called for a comprehensive action plan to address the growing frequency of natural calamities.
India’s meteorological agency is predicting more rain in the coming hours. Monsoon rains across the region from June to September offer respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies.
They are vital for agriculture and, therefore, the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security for South Asia’s nearly two billion people. However, they also bring destruction in the form of landslides and floods.
The number of fatal floods and landslides has increased in recent years, and experts say climate change is exacerbating the problem.
Intense monsoon storms battered India earlier this month, flooding parts of the financial capital Mumbai, while lightning in the eastern state of Bihar killed at least 10 people.
Nearly 500 people were killed around Kerala in 2018 during the worst flooding to hit the state in almost a century.
India’s worst landslide in recent decades was in 1998, when rockfall triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 220 people and completely buried the tiny village of Malpa in the Himalayas.
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