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
\n Wayanad
\nRelentless downpours and howling winds hampered Wednesday\u2019s search for survivors of landslides that struck Indian tea plantations and killed at least 150 people, most believed to be laborers and their families.
\nDays of torrential monsoon rains have battered the southern coastal state of Kerala, with blocked roads into the Wayanad district disaster area complicating relief efforts.
\nWith 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 zipline erected over raging flood waters.
\nSeveral 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 told AFP at a hospital treating survivors.
\n\u201cThose who escaped were swept away along with houses, temples and schools,\u201d he said.
\nSenior police officer M.R. Ajith Kumar told AFP that around 500 people had been rescued since successive landslides struck before dawn on Tuesday.
\n\u201cSo far we have got more than 150 bodies,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cStill large areas are to be explored and searched to find out whether live people are there or not.\u201d
\nWayanad is famed for the tea estates that crisscross its hilly countryside, which rely on a large pool of laborers for planting and harvest.
\nA 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.
\nOther buildings were caked with mud as the force of the landslide scattered cars, corrugated iron and other debris around the disaster site.
\n\u201cCatastrophic debris flows are extremely violent, so survival is very difficult,\u201d Hull University earth scientist Dave Petley told AFP.
\n\u201cThis will have been exacerbated by the timing \u2014 in the early hours when people were asleep \u2014 and by flimsy structures that offered little protection.\u201d
\nMore than 3,000 people were sheltering in emergency relief camps around Wayanad district, the state government said.
\nAt least 572 millimeters (22.5 inches) of rain fell in the two days leading up to the landslides, according to state chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
\nKerala\u2019s disaster agency said more rain and strong winds were forecast for Thursday with the likelihood of \u201cdamage to unsafe structures\u201d elsewhere in the state.
\nIndian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who until recently represented Wayanad in parliament, said he had been unable to go through with a planned visit to the disaster.
\n\u201cDue to incessant rains and adverse weather conditions we have been informed by authorities that we will not be able to land,\u201d he said in a post on social media platform X.
\n\u201cOur thoughts are with the people of Wayanad at this difficult time,\u201d he added.
\nMonsoon rains across the region from June to September offer respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies.
\nThey are vital for agriculture \u2014 and therefore the livelihoods of millions of farmers, and food security for South Asia\u2019s nearly two billion people \u2014 but they also bring regular destruction.
\nThe number of fatal floods and landslides has increased in recent years, and experts say climate change is exacerbating the problem.
\n\u201cEvents like landslides, they are part of these climate-change-triggered heavy rainfall disasters,\u201d Kartiki Negi of the Indian environment think tank Climate Trends told AFP.
\n\u201cIndia will continue to see more and more of these kinds of impacts in the future,\u201d she added.
\nDamming, deforestation and development projects in India have also exacerbated the human toll.
\nIndia\u2019s worst landslide in recent decades was in 1998, when rockfalls triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 220 people and buried the tiny village of Malpa in the Himalayas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 Wayanad Relentless downpours and howling winds hampered Wednesday\u2019s search for survivors of landslides that struck Indian tea plantations and killed at least 150 people, most believed to be laborers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-422023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n