Relentless downpours and howling winds hampered yesterday’s search for survivors of landslides that struck Indian tea plantations and killed 126 people, most believed to be laborers and their families.
Days of torrential monsoon rains have battered the southern coastal state of Kerala, with blocked roads into the Wayanad district disaster area complicating relief efforts.
With the only bridge connecting the worst-hit villages of Chooralmala and Mundakkai washed away, rescue teams were forced to cart bodies on stretchers out of the disaster zone using a makeshift zip line erected over raging flood waters.
Photo: Reuters
Several who managed to flee the initial impact of the landslides found themselves caught in a nearby river that had burst its banks, volunteer rescuer Arun Dev said.
“Those who escaped were swept away along with houses, temples and schools,” he said.
Wayanad is famed for the tea estates that crisscross its hilly countryside, which rely on a large pool of laborers for planting and harvest.
Several plantations were hit by two successive landslides before dawn on Tuesday.
A number of brick-walled row homes built to accommodate seasonal workers were inundated by a powerful wall of brown sludge as laborers and their families slept inside. Other buildings were caked with mud as the force of the landslide scattered cars, corrugated iron and other debris around the disaster site.
A Wayanad district official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 126 bodies had been recovered so far with the toll expected to rise further.
More than 3,000 people were sheltering in emergency relief camps around Wayanad district, the state government said.
At least 572mm of rain fell in the two days leading up to the landslide, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a statement.
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