Rescue crews in the southern Indian state of Kerala are in a race against time to find five people still unaccounted for, one day after powerful monsoon rains triggered a deadly landslide, according to officials.
The disaster struck near a tunnel construction site in Wayanad district — a hilly area recognized for its dense forests and sweeping green terrain — claiming the lives of at least three workers. Seven additional workers sustained injuries and are currently receiving hospital care.
Search teams, including disaster response units and sniffer dogs, fanned out across the area, which authorities divided into search zones. A local police official named Devamanohar told reporters that ongoing heavy rainfall has made the search effort significantly more difficult.
Video footage captured the moment a massive wall of mud collapsed during the downpour, tearing trees from the ground and demolishing metal and fabric barriers surrounding the construction site.
Kerala’s home minister T. Siddique spoke with reporters and characterized the event as something other than a natural disaster. According to the Press Trust of India news agency, he stated it was “not a natural landslide but a man-made one caused by the unscientific dumping of earth,” and alleged that construction debris had not been removed despite warnings from officials.
The construction company involved pushed back against those claims, asserting that the slide began well above the area where workers were operating, according to the same news agency.
Authorities have opened a formal investigation into the incident.
This latest disaster follows a pattern seen across India in recent years, with cloudbursts, floods, and landslides causing widespread loss of life and property damage.
Climate scientists warn that human-driven climate change is making South Asia’s monsoon seasons increasingly unpredictable. The monsoons, which traditionally occur from June through September and again from October through December, are now arriving in sudden, intense bursts that drop extreme amounts of rainfall in brief windows — followed by periods of little to no rain.
