India: Over 300 killed in Kerala landslides

Landslides swept through tea estates and villages in southern India's Kerala on Tuesday, killing at least 308 people while they slept as unexpected heavy rain collapsed hillsides and triggered torrents of mud, water and tumbling boulders.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Friday confirmed 308 deaths in the multiple landslides that hit Wayanad on July 30.

The rescue and relief operations are underway in Chooralmala and Mundakkai in the Meppadi region where the landslides wreaked havoc.

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Minister George said that 195 bodies and 113 body parts have been recovered so far.

The Indian Army earlier today handed over the 190-feet Bailey Bridge to the civil administration which was built over the Iruvanjippuzha river connecting the regions Chooralmala and Mundakkai, isolated by the landslides.

The personnel also held a meeting at Wayanad District Collector's office. The officials said that search operations by relief teams along with dog squads started at 7 am today. This includes 10 teams comprising 30 members each formed from Armed Forces personnel including Police.

The affected area has been divided into six zones based on accessibility and prospects of recovery of missing persons, namely Zone 1 -Punchirimattom region, Zone 2 - Mundekkai region, Zone 3 - School area, Zone 4 - Chooralmala town area, Zone 5 - Village area and Zone 6 - Downstream.

The rescue and relief operations coordinated by the Army, NDRF, SDRF and civil administration are underway at multiple locations, ensuring quick evacuation of stranded people, and provision of basic amenities and medical assistance.

Tuesday's landslides

The hillsides gave way after midnight following torrential rainfall on Monday in the Wayanad district of Kerala, a state known as one of India's most popular tourist destinations. Most of the victims were tea estate workers and their families who lived in small houses or makeshift shelters.

Television images showed rescue workers scrambling through uprooted trees and flattened tin structures as boulders lay strewn across the hillsides and muddy water gushed through. Rescuers were being pulled across a stream, carrying stretchers and other equipment to rescue people.

Tuesday's landslides are the worst disaster in the state since 2018 when heavy floods killed almost 400 people.

"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."

More than 3,000 people had been moved out of the area and accommodated in 45 relief camps in the district, he said, adding that hundreds of personnel, including army soldiers, using drones and sniffer dogs were searching for survivors.

Vijayan, a survivor who gave only one name, said he woke up in the middle of the night to feel the ground shake and see electric poles fall.

"A couple of neighbours and I ran to nearby houses where we heard cries for help and took some of the injured to safety," he told Asianet.

"My father, mother, sister and her daughter were in the house and as I went towards them the next landslide hit with a roaring sound," he said. "I clung to a window bar as I saw my mother and sister disappear under the mud, I couldn't do anything."

'Unpredictable rain'

Army engineers were deployed to help build a replacement bridge after the one that linked the affected area to the nearest town of Chooralmala was destroyed, the chief minister's office said in a statement.

"A small team has managed to cross the bridge across the river and reach (the site) but we will need to send many more to provide help and to start rescue operations," Kerala chief secretary V. Venu told reporters.

A military helicopter managed to land at Mundakkai, one of the worst hit areas where about 250 people were stranded on a hilltop and at a tourist resort without enough food and medicine. They could not be accessed by air earlier due to bad weather, officials said.

This was expected to speed up rescue efforts and the injured would be evacuated first, they said.

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