By Chris Thomas, Munsif Vengattil and Jose Devasia
KOCHI, India (Reuters) –
By Chris Thomas and Jose Devasia
CHOORALMALA, India (Reuters) – Rescue workers began looking for people trapped under debris early on Wednesday, a day after landslides caused havoc in the Wayanad district of India’s Kerala state, with at least 151 people dead and many still missing.
Heavy rain in one of India’s most attractive tourist destinations collapsed hillsides and triggered torrents of mud, water and tumbling boulders in the worst disaster in the state since deadly floods in 2018.
Most of the 350 families living in the area surrounded by tea and cardamom estates were caught unaware by the landslides early on Tuesday morning.
At least 151 people died and 187 were still missing, the state chief minister’s spokesman, P.M. Manoj, told Reuters by phone.
Television visuals showed many houses destroyed and trees uprooted, as rescuers were pulled by ropes across muddy streams of water.
The government was considering making a portable, pre-fabricated Bailey bridge to connect the affected area, after the main bridge to the nearest town of Chooralmala was destroyed, K. Rajan, the state revenue minister told Asianet TV.
After a day of extremely heavy rainfall that hampered rescue operations, the weather department expects some respite on Wednesday, although the area is likely to receive rain through the day.
“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.
Although the area is a well known tourist destination, local residents were the most affected as all tourist excursions had been halted since Monday due to the rain.
Chief Minister Vijayan said that many people had been moved out of the area before the landslides due to the heavy rain and this had helped reduce the toll.
The region was forecast to get 204 millimetres (8 inches) of rainfall but ended up getting 572 millimetres (22.5 inches) over a period of 48 hours, he said, adding that in the wake of “climate change … rainfall and other natural disasters are sometimes unpredictable”.
More rains were forecast across the state for the next five days, he said, and urged people to take precautions.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who won a seat in Wayanad in the recent general election, but resigned as he was also elected in his family bastion in the north, said he had spoken to the state chief minister to ensure coordination with all agencies.
“The devastation unfolding in Wayanad is heartbreaking,” he said in a message on X. “I have urged the union government to extend all possible support.”
(Reporting by Chris Thomas and Jose Devasia, writing by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)