Nearly 24 hours after a deadly landslide hit Wayanad in the southern Indian state of Kerala, the death toll has risen to 151, with rescuers racing against time to free people trapped under the rubble.
At least 186 people were injured, with many feared trapped under mud and debris.
The landslide hit the hillsides of Wayanad early on Tuesday, destroying houses, uprooting trees and destroying a bridge.
A police officer who gave his name only as Aijaz told The Associated Press that more than a dozen bodies were found overnight.
More than 300 rescue workers were searching for people trapped under the mud and rubble, but efforts were hampered by blocked roads, unstable terrain and continuing rain.
The India Meteorological Department said around 28 centimetres of rain had fallen in Wayanad in the last 24 hours.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said several affected areas, including Meppadi, Mundakkai and Choralumala, remained largely inaccessible as roads had been washed away.
“Search operations are continuing using all available resources to find the missing persons,” he said.
Video taken from the disaster area on Tuesday showed rescue workers wading through rubble and downed trees and muddy water flowing over the remains of destroyed homes.
The state government mobilized helicopters to assist with rescue efforts, and the military was deployed to build a temporary bridge connecting the affected area to the town center after the original was destroyed by a landslide.
Scientific assessments show that the climate crisis caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas is making rainfall more erratic and increasing the amount of rainfall over shorter periods. The past 13 months have been the hottest on record on Earth, and Sunday marked the hottest day on record.
Human activities such as construction in environmentally sensitive areas have made many hilly areas prone to landslides.
“Monsoon patterns are becoming increasingly erratic with more rain falling in a shorter period of time. As a result, landslides and floods are becoming more frequent along the Western Ghats,” Roxy Matthew Cole, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, told The Associated Press.
Cole urged authorities to monitor rapid construction activities in landslide-prone areas. “Landslides and flash floods occur frequently in areas where the impacts of direct human intervention in terms of climate change and land use change are evident,” he said.
