Oct 18, 2021: Heavy rains in the southern Indian state of Kerala have killed at least 22 people over the weekend, officials say.

Rains across the state have caused floods and landslides in many areas, with the Indian Army and Navy being called in for rescue. Officials and eyewitnesses said about 13 of them were killed in a landslide in Kuttikkal village.

P K Jayasaree, a senior government official in Kotayam district, said that where the landslide occurred, almost half of the deaths were from the same family.

The state’s Disaster Management Committee said in a statement that light rains are expected to continue across the state, though weather warnings have been withdrawn in many areas.

Kerala was also hit by the worst floods of a century in 2018, killing at least 400 people and displacing nearly 200,000.

At least 22 people were killed in two landslides in Kotim and Adoki districts, which swept away several houses and buried others in mud and debris.

The body of a seven-year-old boy was pulled from the rubble of a landslide in Kottayam late Sunday night, and rescue workers are still searching the wreckage, local newspaper Malayalam Manorama reported.

Several incidents of drowning and flooding were reported. Local television has dramatically shown a two-story house falling into the swollen river. Roads and bridges were destroyed and trees uprooted in the affected areas.

Many dams in the river state are said to be full of danger levels, which is also a popular tourist destination.

Residents were cut off in the coastal parts of the state as the rains, which started to intensify from late Friday, swelled rivers and flooded roads.

Thousands of people have been evacuated and at least 100 relief camps have been set up, Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

The army, navy and airforce are assisting with flood relief and rescue operations. Officials could not say how many people were missing.

The Indian Meteorological Department said the heavy rains were due to low pressure area in the southeastern Arabian Sea and Kerala. The Meteorological Department has warned of heavy rains for at least three days since Wednesday, raising fears of further flooding.

The meteorological bureau said some states in northern India, including the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, would receive “heavy to very heavy rains” in the next two to three days.

They added that the northern meteorological system would be due to the low pressure area in Afghanistan and its environs, which would interact with the strong winds coming from the Bay of Bengal.

India, with a population of 1.3 billion, relies on rainfall to support its population, most of whom depend on agriculture. But too much rain can cause flooding, landslides and waterborne diseases.

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