By 5 pm on Tuesday, July 30, bodies of 93 people were recovered from the rubbles of multiple landslides in Wayanad, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in an urgently called press meet. Thirty four people have been identified and 18 bodies handed over to relatives after postmortem, he said. Sixteen bodies were recovered from the Chaliyar River of Malappuram. Before detailing the rescue and relief work in place, the CM spoke about the first landslide that struck Wayanad at 2 am, followed by a second one at 4.10 am. The areas of Meppadi, Mundakkai, Chooralmala were stranded, a whole road between Chirakumala and Mundakai was washed away. The Iruvazhinjippuzha split into two. And the Vellarmala government school got buried in the mudslide.
“This is one of the most tragic natural disasters that our state has witnessed. Rescue operations are being put in place through every possible way,” the CM said, listing the number of army and fire force personnel, and the air and naval teams on the way.
As many as 3,069 people have been moved into the 45 rescue camps in Wayanad, while statewide, 5531 people are staying in 118 camps. Food and other essential items are being arranged for them, the CM said.
Although Mundakkai has been declared a disaster prone area before, Chooralmala, which is six km away from the primary centre, has not been one. It was mostly flat terrain and has been thickly populated. “Considering the heavy rains of the last day, many people were already moved to camps and this helped in reducing the loss of life,” the CM said.
Weather warnings had said that rain between 64 mm and 200 mm would fall in the last two days. However, there was 200mm on the first day and 372 mm on the second day, making it 572 mm in 48 hours. Eight districts were issued red alerts – Wayanad, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod for July 30. Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Ernakulam have been given orange warning while Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam remain yellow.
Wayanad is a hilly region dotted with tea estates. The estate workers live in houses called ‘layams’ on the hills. Many of the layams were destroyed in the rains, while others were totally devastated by landslides that trapped and killed the residents. The landslides happened between 2 am and 6 am on Tuesday, July 30.