India’s landslide toll has reached 150 as rain hampers rescue efforts

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Relentless rain and howling winds hampered Wednesday’s search for survivors of landslides that hit tea plantations in India and killed at least 150 people, most of them believed to be laborers and their families.

Days of torrential monsoon rains have lashed the southern coastal state of Kerala, with blocked roads in the disaster zone of Wayanad district complicating relief efforts.

As the only bridge connecting the worst-hit villages of Chooralmala and Mundakkai was washed away, rescue teams were forced to stretcher the bodies out of the disaster area using a makeshift zip line raised above the floodwaters.

A few who managed to flee the initial impact of the landslides found themselves 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 Ajith Kumar told AFP that around 500 people had been rescued from successive landslides before dawn on Tuesday.

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

“Large areas still need to be explored and searched to find out whether living people are there or not.”

Wayanad is famous for the tea estates that cross the hilly countryside, which rely on a large pool of laborers for planting and harvesting.

A number of brick-walled row houses, built to house seasonal workers, were inundated by a thick wall of brown mud as the workers and their families slept inside.

Other buildings were covered in mud as the force of the slide scattered cars, corrugated iron and other debris around the disaster site.

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

“This will be exacerbated by when people were sleeping – the early hours when people were sleeping and the weak structures that offered little protection.”

More than 3,000 people were sheltering in relief camps around Wayanad district, the state government said.

At least 572 millimeters (22.5 inches) of rain fell in the two days before the landslides, according to state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Kerala’s disaster agency said more rain and strong winds were forecast for Thursday, with the possibility of “damage to unsafe structures” elsewhere in the state.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who until recently represented Wayanad in parliament, said he was unable to make a planned visit to the disaster.

“Due to incessant rain and bad weather conditions we have been informed by the 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.

The region’s monsoon rains from June to September provide respite from the summer heat and are crucial for replenishing water supplies.

They are vital to agriculture — and thus the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security for nearly two billion people in South Asia — but they also wreak regular havoc.

The number of fatal floods and landslides has increased in recent years, and experts say climate change is exacerbating the problem.

“Events like landslides are part of these catastrophes caused by climate change,” Kartiki Negi, of the Indian think tank Climate Trends, told AFP.

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

India’s dam, deforestation and development projects have also exacerbated the human toll.

India’s worst landslide in decades was in 1998, when rockfall triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 220 people and buried the small Himalayan village of Malpa.