Hopes of finding more than 180 missing people alive are waning as rescue workers search through mud and debris for a third day after landslides set off by torrential rain killed at least 194 people in southern India.
The rescue work was challenging in a forested, hilly area while more rain fell on Thursday, said PM Manoj, a spokesman for Kerala state’s top elected official.
Nearly 40 bodies were found downstream after being swept some 30km down the Chaliyar River from the area in Wayanad district where the main landslides occurred.
Body parts were also recovered.
Torrents of mud and water swept through tea estates and villages in hilly areas in the district early Tuesday.
They flattened houses and destroyed bridges, and rescuers had to pull out people stuck under mud and debris.
"This is one of the worst natural calamities Kerala state has ever witnessed," Kerala's top elected official, Pinarayi Vijayan, said.
Manoj said 187 people were unaccounted for as of Thursday.
As well as the dead and missing, 186 people were injured.
Most of the victims were tea estate workers, local media reported.
More than 5500 people have been rescued, Vijayan said, with more than 1000 rescue personnel, helicopters and heavy equipment involved.
The army was building a temporary bridge after the main bridge in one of the worst-affected areas was swept away.
Images from the site show rescue workers making their way through muck and floodwaters, while a land excavator was clearing the debris.
Manoj said more than 8300 people had been moved to 82 relief camps.
Kerala, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations, is prone to heavy rain, flooding and landslides.
Wayanad district had up to 28 centimetres of rain on Monday and Tuesday, the Indian Meteorological Department said.
Heavy rain also wreaked havoc in other parts of India this week.
New Delhi shut schools on Thursday after torrential downpours the previous day submerged roads, left residents stranded and killed at least two people, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
More rains were expected this week.
In the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, three people were killed and about 40 were reported missing after heavy rains and two cloudbursts washed away homes, flooded roads and damaged infrastructure, authorities told PTI on Thursday.
Four people were also killed Wednesday in the neighbouring Uttarakhand state following heavy rains.
Meanwhile, at least 13 people, including three children, were killed in lightning strikes in eastern Bihar state on Thursday, the chief minister’s office said.
Most of the victims had gone to plant paddy in the fields when lightning struck them.
India regularly has severe floods during the monsoon season, which runs between June and September and brings most of South Asia’s annual rainfall.
The rains are crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season but often cause extensive damage.
Scientists say monsoons are becoming more erratic because of climate change and global warming.
