At least 250 people were rescued from mud and rubble on Tuesday after landslides in India caused by intense monsoon rains devastated tea estates, killing at least 108 people, according to officials.
Heavy rains have pounded Kerala, a coastal state in southern India. Relief efforts are made more difficult by blocked highways leading to the Wayanad district disaster area.
According to a statement from the state’s chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, “this catastrophe has resulted in the loss of 108 lives.” “Kerala has never seen a worse natural disaster than this.”
Following their rescue, 128 more individuals were admitted to hospitals for treatment, he said.
“This is among the worst natural disasters our state has ever experienced.”
“My prayers are with those injured and my thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on the social networking platform X.
The tea estates that dot Wayanad’s steep landscape are well-known, and their planting and harvesting depend heavily on a big pool of casual laborers.
Before morning, when most of the residents were still asleep, two landslides struck several estates in the district.
Rescue workers were seen slogging through muck in photos released by the National Disaster Response Force in order to look for survivors and remove dead from the scene on stretchers.
The power of the landslide dispersed automobiles, corrugated iron, and other debris around the tragedy site, coating homes in a layer of brown sludge.
The Indian army reported that more than 200 soldiers had been sent to the region to support fire departments and state security agencies in their search and rescue operations.
More than 250 individuals have been rescued thus far, according to Kerala state excise minister MB Rajesh, according to The Hindu newspaper.
Families of victims will get $2,400 in compensation, according to Modi’s office.
The disaster management office for Kerala predicted that Tuesday would bring with it more rain and high winds.
“Daunting increase in landslides”
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Indian opposition and a former parliamentarian for Wayanad, told MPs that the extent of the destruction was “heartbreaking.”
He declared, “There has been an alarming increase in landslides in our country in recent years.” “A thorough action plan is urgently needed to address the increasing frequency of natural disasters.”
The region receives monsoon rains from June to September, which provide relief from the summer heat and are essential for restocking water supplies.
They are essential to agriculture, which in turn supports the livelihoods of millions of farmers and ensures the almost two billion people living in South Asia have access to food.
However, they also bring devastation in the form of floods and landslides.
Experts claim that the problem of an increase in deadly floods and landslides in recent years is being exacerbated by climate change.
“There are more days with exceptionally high rainfall than there used to be,” Indian environmental research tank Climate Trends’ Kartiki Negi told AFP.
She remarked, “The atmosphere is quite disturbed.” “Therefore, extreme events are becoming more common these days.”
In India, development initiatives, deforestation, and damming have all increased the death toll.
This month, India was pounded by strong monsoon rains that caused areas of the financial hub Mumbai to flood, while at least ten people were killed by lightning in the eastern state of Bihar.
In 2018, the greatest flooding to hit Kerala in nearly a century claimed the lives of nearly 500 people in the surrounding areas.
In 1998, a landslide caused by strong monsoon rains in India resulted in the burial of the little village of Malpa in the Himalayas and the death of at least 220 people. This was the country’s biggest landslide in recent memory.
