Rescue hit by rain, debris as Wayanad deaths soar to 193

The toll from the Kerala landslides surged to 193 as rescue teams scoured through layers of slush, battered homes and wrecked cars in Wayanad district on Wednesday, while officials warned that the number would spiral further, with 190 people missing and little possibility of any of them surviving.

A day after the state’s worst monsoon tragedy since 2018, teams from the army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) struggled against the treacherous terrain, as boulders, mud and strong currents of floodwater hampered rescue efforts, forcing them to use improvised ziplines and jerry-rigged bridges to extricate dead bodies or trapped people.

Kerala chief minister Pinayari Vijayan, addressing a press briefing in Thiruvananthapuram, said that 158 bodies were recovered, over 200 people were being treated in hospitals and 5,592 people were rescued from the ravaged areas.

Officials said the army and construction agencies were working to rebuild roads and a key bridge that the landslide had destroyed to accelerate rescue and rehabilitation efforts, even as Mundakkai, Chooralmala, Attamala and Noolpuzha remained cut-off from the rest of the district.

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Days of ceaseless rain precipitated two landslides within three hours in the northern Kerala district early on Tuesday, wiping out most of Mundakkai and Chooralmala, decimating public infrastructure in the remote villages nestled in the Western Ghats that survived largely on tourism and tea plantations, and leaving thousands marooned. The swelling waters of the Iruvazhinji river that courses through the two villages compounded the disaster and consumed settlements along its banks.

Experts said the disaster, one of several that has ravaged Kerala in recent years, may have been down to the imminent impacts of the climate crisis, and worsened by soil erosion. They also pointed out that recommendations to include the region in the top tier of eco-sensitive zones were ignored and that several parts of the fragile Western Ghats were also excluded.

The issue also resonated in Parliament again, with a string of leaders from the government and opposition parties addressing the disaster.

Meanwhile, even more rain lashed the hill district on Wednesday, with over 56mm of showers in the 24 hours till 10.30pm impeding relief teams, which struggled to negotiate the downpour and the unstable earth.

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Most of the people found missing or the bodies recovered were either from Chooralmala or Mundakkai, said NDRF officials, adding that the landslide washed away nearly 200 houses and killed entire families.

As a result, rescue teams focussed their efforts on these two hamlets, which together housed just about 1,200 people.

“At least 121 houses from Chooramala village were washed away. Around 600 families lived in the village and at least 70 people who died are from there,” Akhilesh Kumar, commandant of the NDRF’s 4th battalion said.

Rescuers pulled bodies out from beneath trees and debris of collapsed houses, he said.

Chooralmala was a popular tourist destination, especially for people from neighbouring areas, with the Soochippara waterfalls, Vellolippara and Seetha lake drawing crowds.

“We have lost everything... everyone... Nothing is left for us here,” said an elderly man looking for his family through the ruins of his house in Chooralmala.

In Mundakkai, rescuers erected tiny bridges using ropes and ladders to access patches of land cut-off by floodwater and rescue trapped people. In some places, rescuers formed human chains using ropes tied around their waists.

Rescuers smashed through the roofs of flattened homes to hunt for survivors. “Continuing rains, thick mud, slippery grounds, and swollen rivers pose challenges to the rescue mission,” a local resident said.

The army said it has intensified search operations. Four columns of the Defence Security Corps (DSC) Centre, Kannur, and 122 TA Battalion are conducting combined rescue operations, said a senior army official.

Two humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) columns, including two medical teams, were airlifted from Thiruvananthapuram to Kozhikode by AN32 and C-130 aircraft late Tuesday night, said the army.

Chief minister Vijayan called the landslides painful and unprecedented.

“Rescue operations in Wayanad are continuing at full scale… So far, 144 bodies have been recovered, of 79 men and 64 women. There are still 191 people missing. Efforts are being made to evacuate as many people as possible from the disaster area, and necessary medical treatment is being provided to those who have been rescued,” he said.

Meanwhile, leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said they will visit Wayanad on Thursday, a day after their initially scheduled visit, which was cancelled due to the inclement weather.