A devastating landslide at Kalladi near Meppady in Wayanad, Kerala, has resulted in one death and seven missing individuals at a crucial tunnel road project site, with Chief Minister V D Satheesan attributing the tragedy to contractors' failure to heed warnings about accumulated mud.
The body of Vikram Rana, the last person missing after the July 7 landslide at the Anakkampoyil-Meppadi tunnel project site in Kalladi, Wayanad, Kerala, has been recovered. This brings the death toll to eight. A massive search operation involving multiple agencies led to the discovery of the construction manager's body, concluding the search efforts.
Extensive search operations are underway in Wayanad, Kerala, a day after a landslide at a tunnel road construction site claimed three lives. Five people remain missing, and authorities have registered a case of unnatural death. Rescue teams, including NDRF and cadaver dogs, are facing challenges due to ongoing rains and significant mud accumulation.
Kerala's Leader of Opposition, V D Satheesan, has accused the state government of inaugurating a township for 2024 landslide victims in Wayanad to mislead the public, citing issues with the construction and timing of the inauguration.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan's interaction with a young landslide survivor during a township inauguration has ignited a political debate, with CPI (M) leaders contrasting it with PM Modi's earlier interaction with the same child.
Senior CPI(M) leaders address online attacks against Malayalam actor Mammootty after his visit to a Wayanad township for landslide survivors, following reports of his displeasure with a local party leader's presence.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan publicly apologised to Malayalam actor Mammootty for online abuse following a controversy related to a visit to a Wayanad township.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan's interaction with a young landslide survivor during a township inauguration has ignited a political debate, with CPI (M) leaders contrasting it with PM Modi's earlier interaction with the same girl.
Intense rains lashed Kerala on Sunday, uprooting trees across the state, including one that fell on a moving train in Thrissur and another that caused a fatality in Kozhikode. Houses were damaged, rivers were in spate, and shutters of some dams were raised as the southwest monsoon gained strength. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) placed five northern districts - Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, and Kasaragod - under a 'red alert' for the day, predicting extremely heavy rainfall there.
While two bodies were recovered on Wednesday, the death toll climbed to four on Thursday after the recovery of two more bodies from the Indira Priyadarshini Hydroelectric project site in Kangra district.
In Kerala's society, known for its high material standard of living, plunging into a state of having nothing overnight can be terrible for one's social standing and sense of self-esteem. Rehabilitation entails piecing a community back together after a disturbance and while its aim is noble, the act of reassembling will bring alive disparities and inequalities, explains Shyam G Menon.
Modi also visited one of the relief camps, which is home to many of those displaced in the massive landslides, and interacted with some of the survivors, including two children who lost their loved ones in the disaster that has claimed over 200 lives.
Swollen water bodies changed their course and flowed through inhabited areas, resulting in more destruction.
Television channels aired phone conversations of several people crying and requesting someone to come and rescue them as they were either trapped in their houses or had no way to travel as bridges had been washed away and the roads were flooded.
Shruti, who lost her entire family in the Wayanad landslide disaster and later her fianc in a road accident, began a new chapter of hope by joining government service. The state cabinet had recently decided to provide a government job to the young woman, who had endured back-to-back tragedies. She joined the Revenue Department as a clerk in the mountainous district, expressing gratitude to the government for its support during her difficult times.
When the landslide hit, Sruthi's house was washed away, along with its inhabitants. She lost her entire family and some relatives. All she had left for a close confidante was her fiance Jenson. Days after the landslide and the loss of her family, Jenson died in a road accident that also left Sruthi with serious injuries. News of the accident and Sruthi's backdrop as the lone surviving member of a family wiped out in the July landslide, was picked up by the media, and people rushed to help.
Survivors of the landslides in Chooralmala-Mundakai in Wayanad district alleged on Thursday that they were given worm-infested food kits by the Meppadi Gram Panchayat, leading to a violent protest by the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) on Thursday.
Despite facing inclement weather, rising water levels and the challenges of working through the night, the Madras Engineers Group team completed the bridge at landslide-hit Choorlamala in Wayanad.
Grim and sad scenes from landslide hit Wayanad district.
Local residents have stressed that land acquisition for rehabilitation must be completed promptly, as it has been delayed after estate owners challenged it in the Kerala high court.
Everyone at Chooralmala thought that the 1.30pm landslide would be the only one, and many had gone back to bed, hoping that others who screamed for help would be safe.
Emotional scenes were witnessed at the polling stations set up for the survivors of the landslides, which hit the hill district in July this year, to cast their votes in the bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency when they saw their neighbours and close friends after a long time since the disaster.
With their near and dear ones gone and staring at an uncertain future, survivors recount their most traumatic experience ever that unfolded in the wee hours of July 30.
In a heart-wrenching tale of devastation, Mansoor lost 16 members of his family, including his mother, wife, two children, sister, and 11 members of his sister-in-law's family.
The survivors, one with broken limbs and the other with torn clothes and bruises, were crying out for help when Rahman reached the spot.
The Kerala government on Tuesday sought the assistance of the Indian Army for rescue operations in the wake of the devastating landslides in Wayanad district.
The search for survivors continues after several devastating landslides triggered by heavy rainfall hit the hills in Wayanad district.
As rescue operations in the landslide-hit areas of this north Kerala district entered fifth day, rescuers unearthed more bodies and body parts, taking the death toll to 215, with around 206 people still reported missing.
Malayalam television channels aired the visuals captured on the CCTVs in some shops in Chooralmala, one of the hamlets completely destroyed in the disaster.
'Except that the population was much less.' 'I remember my uncle and family moving away from the base of a hill whenever it rained for more than a couple of days without a dry day in between.' 'Perhaps the older generations knew if it rained for more than a certain time, they must pack up to a camp or to a relative.' 'As some of the interviews of the survivors on the Malayalam television channels show, the elderly people had a premonition a tragedy would happen, and those who acted on those premonitions survived.'
In the months immediately following the 2024 tragedy, reporting on the landslide per se had been a straightforward affair. On one side was death and destruction. On the other side, survivors and the business of survival. It was black and white. What direction to take was clear. Rehabilitation in comparison, felt like a complex situation. One that is fraught with shades of grey. As grey as human life, explains Shyam G Menon.
The aftermath of the multiple landslides in the hills in Wayanad, July 30, 2024, which has claimed over fifty lives.
'Till 10 pm last night, we rescued 70 people, after which we had to stop because of bad weather and rain.'
The woman, her husband and two children, aged 4 years and four months, have already left for Wayand from their home in Idukki in central Kerala.
Besides the police and fire force personnel, volunteers of various service and youth outfits, survivors of the landslides and kin of the victims also became part of the search operations.
The death toll in the devastating landslides in Kerala's Wayanad district rose to 167 on Wednesday, while 191 were missing even as the rescue teams intensified efforts to find survivors trapped under the debris on the second day of the search operations.
The construction of a Bailey bridge to connect the landslide-hit areas, where several people are believed to be stranded, alongside the deployment of sniffer dogs and over 1,000 rescuers from Central and state emergency response teams conducting massive search operations, constitutes one of the largest rescue efforts in the Wayanad, devastated by a deadly calamity.
A total of 1,162 essential documents have been distributed among 872 persons at the camp, the district administration in Wayanad said.
Rescue operations in Kerala's Wayanad district resumed on Thursday, marking one of the largest efforts to save those stranded by the landslides that have hit the region.
'The deceased persons might be sitting or lying down when the tragedy struck them in the wee hours of Tuesday'
