Landslides in India triggered by pounding monsoon rains have killed at least 63 people with hundreds more feared trapped under mud and debris, officials said yesterday.
The southern coastal state of Kerala has been battered by torrential downpours, and the collapse of a key bridge at the disaster site in Wayanad district has hampered rescue efforts, local media reported.
The landslides killed at least 63 people, while another 116 people had been injured, the office of Kerala Minister for Revenue and Housing K. Rajan told reporters.
Photo: Reuters
Kerala Minister for Health and Woman and Child Development Veena George told the Press Trust of India news agency that “many” others had been injured and were being treated in hospital. Images published by the National Disaster Response Force showed rescue crews trudging through mud to search for survivors and carring bodies on stretchers out of the area.
Homes were caked with brown sludge as the force of the landslide’s impact scattered vehicles, corrugated iron and other debris around the disaster site.
The Indian Army said that it had deployed more than 200 soldiers to the area to assist state security forces and fire crews in search and rescue efforts.
“Hundreds of people are suspected to have been trapped,” the army said in a statement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had assured the Kerala government of “all possible help” with the situation.
“My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones and prayers with those injured,” he wrote on X.
His office said that families of victims would be given a compensation payment of 200,000 rupees (US$2,388).
More rainfall and strong winds were forecast in Kerala yesterday, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority said.
Indian Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who until recently represented Wayanad in parliament, said he was “deeply anguished” by the disaster.
“I hope those still trapped are brought to safety soon,” he said.
Several people injured in the landslides were taken to a hospital in the district for treatment.
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 2 billion people, but they also bring destruction in the form of landslides and floods.
The number of fatal floods and landslides has increased in the past few years, and experts say climate change is exacerbating the problem.
Damming, deforestation and development projects in India have also exacerbated the human toll.
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