Hopes of finding more survivors in the mud and debris wane after landslides in India kill 194

WAYANAD, India -- Hopes of finding more than 180 missing people alive waned as rescue workers searched through mud and debris for a third day Thursday after landslides set off by torrential rains killed at least 194 people in southern India.

The rescue work was challenging in a forested, hilly area while more rain fell, said PM Manoj, a spokesperson for Kerala state’s top elected official. Nearly 40 bodies were found some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the area in Wayanad district where the main landslides occurred, after being swept along the Chaliyar River.

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. In addition to the dead and missing, 186 people were injured. Most of the victims were tea estate workers.

More than 5,500 people have been rescued, Vijayan said, with some 1,100 rescue personnel, helicopters and heavy equipment involved.

The army was constructing 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 floodwater while a land excavator cleared debris.

The Mundakkai and Chooralmala areas are destroyed, Vijayan said.

Manoj said more than 8,300 people have been moved to 82 government-run relief camps where the government is ensuring food delivery and essential items.

Local volunteers trekked for kilometers (miles) through the devastation to join the rescuers searching for the missing. They said they also recovered body parts of some of people who were killed in the disaster.

“We are finding bodies that have lost limbs. Sometimes we find only limbs," said Shakir Husain, a local shopkeeper.

The area is known for its picturesque tea and cardamom estates, with hundreds of plantation workers living in nearby temporary shelters. Of the nearly 400 houses, only 30 were left intact. The rest were swept away by the landslides, said Husain.

“This was a very beautiful place. I used to visit here many times. My friend had three houses here. Now there is nothing left," he said.

Kerala, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations, is prone to heavy rains, flooding and landslides. The Indian Meteorological Department said Wayanad district had up to 28 centimeters (11 inches) of rain on Monday and Tuesday.

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.

Heavy rains also wreaked havoc in other parts of India in recent days.

New Delhi, the Indian capital, 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 in the coming days.

In the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, three people were killed and around 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 neighboring Uttarakhand state following heavy rains.

Meanwhile, at least 13 people, including three children, were killed in lightning strikes in eastern Bihar state on Thursday, a statement from the chief minister’s office said. Most of the victims had gone to plant paddy in the fields when lightning struck them.