KOCHI, India. A series of devastating landslides struck southern India’s Kerala on Tuesday, claiming at least 93 lives and leaving hundreds more missing. The disaster, triggered by torrential rain, has wreaked havoc across tea estates and villages in the Wayanad district, one of the state’s renowned tourist areas.
The landslides, which occurred after midnight following heavy rainfall on Monday, collapsed hillsides, unleashing torrents of mud, water, and boulders. Most of the victims were tea estate workers and their families who were asleep in makeshift shelters when the landslides hit.
Television footage captured the chaos as rescue workers navigated through uprooted trees, flattened structures, and strewn boulders. Efforts were hampered by chest-high mud, as illustrated by the dramatic rescue of a man trapped in the muck for hours before emergency workers reached him.
According to local reports, at least 93 people have been confirmed dead, and 100 families remain stranded. Nearly 350 families lived in the affected region, which is primarily dedicated to tea and cardamom cultivation. State officials have confirmed that 250 people have been rescued so far.
In response to the crisis, army engineers have been deployed to construct a replacement bridge after the original one, which connected the affected area to the town of Chooralmala, was destroyed. Kerala Chief Secretary V. Venu reported that while a small team had managed to cross the river and reach the site, more assistance was urgently needed to support rescue operations and locate missing individuals.
The weather office reported extremely heavy rainfall over north and central Kerala on Tuesday, with additional rain expected throughout the day. The adverse weather conditions have severely impacted the region’s tourism industry, which had been halted since Monday.
State Cabinet Minister M. B. Rajesh described the situation as dire, stating, “We fear the gravity of this tragedy is much more. Rescue operations are being carried out by various agencies on a war footing.”
Resident Rashid Padikkalparamban, involved in the relief efforts, reported that at least three landslides occurred starting around midnight, washing away the bridge connecting the Mundakkai estates to Chooralmala. He added, “Many people who were working in the estates and staying in makeshift tents inside are feared trapped or missing.”
Padikkalparamban and about a hundred others from his area have relocated to the nearby Tree Valley resort. Asianet TV reported that rescuers had not yet been able to reach some survivors who called from the resort.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who was elected from Wayanad but resigned to focus on his family constituency, has called for coordinated relief efforts. “The devastation unfolding in Wayanad is heartbreaking,” Gandhi said in a message on X. “I have urged the union government to extend all possible support.”
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
