Indian soldiers worked swiftly on Thursday to complete a metal bridge to reach the most severely impacted area in the Kerala landslides, as the search for survivors and bodies entered its third day. The disaster has claimed at least 178 lives.
Heavy rains in Kerala, a popular tourist destination in India, triggered landslides in the Wayanad district's hills early on Tuesday. Torrents of mud, water, and boulders descended, burying or sweeping away sleeping villagers to their deaths. Army engineers were tasked with building a 190-foot (58-meter) bridge to transport heavy equipment from the town of Chooralmala to the affected Mundakkai area. This followed the collapse of a temporary bridge on Wednesday due to rising river waters. The main bridge was destroyed by landslides on Tuesday, isolating Mundakkai.
V.T. Mathew, a senior army official leading the rescue operations, informed the ANI news agency that the bridge's completion would mark a significant change in the efforts. Once finished, heavy equipment could be brought to the site, enabling more efficient searching for trapped individuals. The rescue efforts over the past two days were hindered by continuous rain and rising river levels, and more heavy rain was predicted by India's weather office for the next 24 hours.
This disaster is the worst in Kerala since the devastating floods of 2018. Experts attributed the landslides to weeks of heavy rain that softened the soil, followed by intense rainfall on Monday. Authorities confirmed 178 fatalities, with 190 people still missing, while the Asianet news TV channel reported the death toll at 267. Nearly 1,600 people have been rescued from hillside villages and tea and cardamom estates in the past two days.
The death toll is expected to increase once the bridge is completed, allowing authorities to expedite search efforts. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who recently won a seat in Wayanad in the general election but resigned due to winning in his family's traditional stronghold in the north, planned to visit the affected areas on Thursday.