Death toll from Kerala landslides mounts to 151

KABUL (Pajhwok): Amid a hectic search for the missing, the death toll from rain-triggered landslides in India’s southern state of Kerala has mounted to 151, a media reports said on Wednesday.

With hundreds of people still missing, the Indian Army claimed rescuing 1,000 individuals and launching the construction of an alternative.

Al Jazeera reported the main bridge linking the worst-hit Mundakkai area with the near eastern town of Chooralmala was washed away on Tuesday.

Over a dozen bodies were pulled out overnight, as hundreds of rescuers tried to retrieve those stuck under mud and debris. However, heavy rain and road closures impeded their mission.

A Kerala TV channel quoted local officials as saying about 350 of the 400 houses in the affected region had been damaged by the landslides and torrential rains.

Officials in Wayanad district, where the landslides occurred, say many people remain trapped in the affected hilly areas.

TV footage showed collapsed houses, swollen water bodies and uprooted trees dotting the villages struck by massive landslides.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs2 lakh for the next of kin of the dead.

Modi spoke to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other political leaders and assured all possible assistance to the state government.

The premier wrote on X: “Distressed by the landslides in parts of Wayanad. My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones and prayers with those injured…”

PAN Monitor/mud