Six Killed as Heavy Rains Trigger Landslides in Kerala
At least six people were killed and several others are missing after heavy rain triggered fresh landslides and flooding across Kerala on Saturday, prompting the meteorological department to issue red alerts for nine districts.
Heavy rain in Kerala has repeatedly triggered landslides, a recurring hazard linked to the state's topography and intense monsoon patterns. The Indian Express examines why these events keep occurring, focusing on the interplay between extreme rainfall, fragile terrain, and land-use changes that increase vulnerability. The analysis comes as the region faces another spell of severe weather, underscoring the persistent risk to communities in landslide-prone zones.
Two years after the devastating Wayanad landslides, exceptionally heavy rain triggered fresh landslides, mudslides and flooding across parts of Kerala on Saturday, killing at least six people and leaving several others feared missing. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert for nine districts — Idukki, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod — warning of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and gusty winds (Indian Express).
Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan directed the collectors of Idukki, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta to undertake emergency preparations and coordinate district-wise rescue operations (Indian Express). The IMD also warned that strong winds with speeds of 40 to 50 kmph were likely in isolated places on Sunday.
Neetha K Gopal, head of the IMD’s Meteorological Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, said the intense spell was driven by an offshore trough extending from the south Gujarat coast to Kerala, strong southwesterly winds across the Arabian Sea, and a strong north-south pressure gradient along the west coast. Together, these conditions strengthened the monsoon flow and produced widespread rainfall across the state (Indian Express).
“This was not rainfall confined to one or two places. It was a widespread heavy rainfall event,” Gopal said. Of the 109 IMD stations in Kerala that recorded rain on Saturday, 53 received more than 7 cm of rainfall, with some stations recording rainfall in the “extremely heavy” category, defined by the IMD as more than 20.4 cm in 24 hours. She added that a large quantity of rain had fallen within a short period, leaving little time for the water to drain away (Indian Express).
“It was the cumulative effect of the preceding rainfall, combined with today’s intense and widespread rainfall activity,” Gopal said, underscoring that the landslides were not triggered by a single burst of rain alone (Indian Express).
Landslides are natural disasters that occur mainly in mountainous terrains with conducive soil, rock, geology and slope conditions. A sudden movement of rock, boulders, earth or debris down a slope is called a landslide. While they are fairly common, landslides are extremely hazardous and pose a threat to human and animal lives, damaging property, roads and bridges, disrupting communication lines and snapping power lines (Indian Express).
Landslides generally result from a combination of two sets of factors. Conditioning factors, such as soil topography, rocks, geomorphology, and slope angles, make some parts of the country more vulnerable than others. Triggering factors include intense rainfall and anthropogenic activities such as haphazard land use, unscientific construction, and large-scale destruction of forests. Most landslides in India are rain-induced events. Other natural causes include earthquakes, snow-melting and undercutting of slopes due to flooding (Indian Express).
Indian Express