Over 121 killed, hundreds missing as landslides batter Wayanad

At least 121 killed, 128 injured, and hundreds missing in Wayanad, Kerala due to landslides triggered by heavy rains, highlighting the impact of the climate crisis.

At least 121 people were killed, 128 were injured and hundreds remained missing in Wayanad district of Kerala after days of ceaseless rain triggered a series of landslides at dawn on Tuesday that wiped out and isolated much of a remote hamlet, caked neighbourhoods in mud and swept away roads, a bridge and other public infrastructure, as the state’s worst monsoon disaster since 2018 underscored the disproportionate brunt of the climate crisis that ecologically sensitive regions bear.

Indian army personnel during a rescue operation after a devastating landslide hit hilly villages triggered by heavy rainfall, in Wayanad on Tuesday. (ANI)

The southern Kerala district was pummelled by 572mm of rain on Monday and Tuesday, precipitating two landslides between 1am and 4am in Chooralmala village that sent fierce currents of water and mud into Mundakkai village downstream and snapped a bridge between the two hamlets. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had only forecast between 64mm and 200mm of rain for the region during this time.

The army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) deployed several teams to rescue people, but relief efforts were significantly hobbled by the destruction of infrastructure, continuous rain and the swelling waters of the Iruvanzhinji river, prompting forces to trek through treacherous terrain, even as two Indian Air Force choppers made their way to the affected areas.

Condolences poured in from across the country, including from President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition and former Wayanad lawmaker Rahul Gandhi.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan held a meeting with his cabinet and senior bureaucrats on Tuesday evening and sent five ministers including K Rajan, in charge of the disaster management department, to Wayanad to oversee the rescue and relief efforts.

“Entire families, including children who were sleeping, were buried under the earth before dawn broke. There were others who were swept away in the force of the landslide...This is a heartbreaking tragedy,” Vijayan said at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram.

Meanwhile, the bodies of several victims, washed downstream by the floods, were found in the waters of the Chaliyar river in Nilambur village, seven kilometres south of Mundakkai.

Most of the victims worked in tea estates and lived in small homes built along arterial roads or at the base of plantations, said local officials.

By 4pm, officials had identified 34 bodies and handed over 18 to their families.

Since 2017, close to 900 people have died in Kerala due to extreme rain and landslides, said state government estimates. Experts have said that unfettered development along the Western Ghats, which pass through Kerala and are one of India’s most ecologically fragile regions, may have destabilised habitats along the mountain range. Separately, climate experts have attributed the increase in extreme rainfall events on India’s western coast of India due to the warming of the southeast Arabian Sea.

Wayanad in particular is especially susceptible to landslides. In August 2019, a major landslide hit Meppadi. The same year, Puthumala village was wiped out as a hillside almost melted away, bringing down everything in its path. Around the same time, a hillock collapsed in Mallapuram and buried a village of 44 families.

The first landslide on Tuesday was around 1.15am in Chooralmala and washed away several people, said officials. As local residents scrambled out of their homes to help those trapped in the rock and debris, a second landslide, much more powerful than the first, hit the same spot.

“Many who were trying to save people got washed away in the second landslide,” said a Mundakkai panchayat official who was among the first to reach the site.

The soil and rocks, loosened after days of rain, barrelled downstream, tearing through a narrow bridge, the only link between Chooralmala and Mundakkai. The landslide also ripped through a local government school beside the bridge that was being used as a relief camp during the showers.

The series of landslides caked a roughly 10 square kilometre area in thick layers of soil and left boulders strewn across the two villages, even as streams of floodwaters gushed through. Residents, meanwhile, climbed to higher, stable ground and looked upon their flattened homes, even as rescue teams airlifted people to safety.

“When the second landslide struck, we ran out of our homes without even bolting the front door. The sound was like metal being unloaded from a truck near you. It was scary. There was no power. In the darkness, we just about managed to reach an acquaintance’s home on higher ground,” said Safna Tuttu, a 33-year-old resident of Chooralmala.

Many others, though, ploughed through the muddy ground and dangerous waters in search of missing people.

Officials said around 200 Army personnel, two Air Force Choppers and a team of Navy personnel from Ezhimala Naval Base in Kannur were deployed, apart from state and NDRFunits.

However, even as NDRF and army teams reached the spot, the precarious conditions and impending darkness , stunted rescue operations. Further, the absence of any road connectivity between Chooralmala and Mundakkai slowed down efforts and forced teams to improvise.

Rescuers built a ropeway to cross the Iruvanzhinji and tied stretchers to the roads to ferry out injured people from impacted areas. At least 200 people remained trapped in Mundakkai village, said NDRF officers involved in the rescue.

“The current is strong so it is not possible to cross the river. Our teams found 17 critically injured from that village and brought them to the other side using the ropeway. Stretchers were tied to the ropes in which the injured were carried by NDRF rescuers,” said Akhilesh Kumar, commandant of the NDRF 4 battalion.

Still, senior officers worked to find an alternative route for trapped residents.

“We are told that there is a spot downstream where the current could be lower,” said an assistant commander at the spot.

Tuesday’s landslides were the state’s worst calamity since the August 2018 floods, when unusually heavy rain across the state killed 483 and displaced over a million. Those were the state’s worst floods in nearly 100 years, going back to 1924, when 1,000 people died after a severe deluge.

Experts said the absence of forest cover and the replacement of large trees with plantation crops may have exacerbated the impact of continuous rainfall.

“There has been heavy rain over two or three days in central and northern parts of Kerala. This was not sudden but continuous heavy rainfall that caused soil to become soft and runny. When the soil moisture is very high, it is saturated and can give way,” said former earth sciences ministry secretary and climate scientist M Rajeevan.

S Abhilash, the director of the Advanced Centre for Atmospheric Radar Research at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) said the clouds were very deep, similar to those seen during the 2019 Kerala floods.

“This atmospheric instability, allowing the formation of deep clouds, is linked to climate change. Earlier, this kind of rainfall was more common in the northern Konkan belt, north of Mangalore,” he said.

Support poured in from across the country as news of the landslide emerged.

President Murmu expressed her grievances on X. “Pained by the loss of lives in massive landslides in Wayanad, Kerala. My condolences to the bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured and for the success of rescue operations,” she said.

Prime Minister Modi and Rahul Gandhi spoke to Vijayan, assuring the state of all possible help.

Modi announced compensation of ₹2 lakh to next of kin of the deceased. “I am saddened by the landslides in some parts of Wayanad. My thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones. Praying for the injured,” he said in a post on X.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour, Gandhi sought enhanced compensation for the kin of the deceased and restoration of vital transport and communication lines.

“There is an urgent need for mapping of landslide prone areas and to take up mitigation measures and an action plan to address the growth in frequency of national calamities in the ecologically fragile regions,” he said.

Gandhi won from the Wayanad seat during the 2019 and 2024 elections. However, in 2024, he gave up his membership of Wayanad, having also won from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress has now nominated its general secretary and Rahul Gandhi’s sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for the by-election in Wayanad.

In the Rajya Sabha, which saw a brief discussion on the tragedy, Leader of the House and Union health minister JP Nadda said the Centre and the Kerala government are pro-actively working to provide relief and carry out rescue operations.

The India Meteorological Department has, meanwhile, issued an orange alert for Kasarakode, Kannur, Wayanad, Malappuram, and Kozhikode districts, warning of more heavy rainfall over the next 24 hours.