Death toll from Kerala landslide climbs to 6 in southern India

The death toll from a landslide in southern India’s Kerala state rose to six on Thursday, according to officials.

Kerala Minister A.P. Anil Kumar said three more bodies were recovered from the site.

Officials also said two people are missing.

At least 10 people were injured in the incident, with three in critical condition.

The landslide occurred Tuesday at the site of the Anakkompoyil-Meppadi tunnel project, which is intended to connect the Wayanad and Kozhikode districts in Kerala.

The three bodies have been identified as migrant workers, according to the state-run Press Trust of India.

Kumar said searches would continue for the two missing persons.

The Kerala government issued two warnings between June 20 and 25 to the contractor of the project, stating that soil piled up from tunnelling should be removed from the site, The Indian Express reported.

It asked the contractor to stop work at the twin tunnel project near the Meenakshi area of Wayanad district temporarily, until the soil is removed.

The catastrophic incident stands as a harrowing reminder of the lethal intersection between fragile ecology, infrastructure ambition and institutional failure, NDTV reported.

While the region’s topography makes it naturally prone to heavy precipitation, the catastrophe was not merely an “act of God,” but the culmination of systemic negligence, regulatory lapses and a failure to prioritize human life over project timelines, it said.

The state government is working on a pilot project to forecast and monitor the probability of landslides in vulnerable areas by analyzing real-time rainfall data along with the topographical susceptibility of the terrain, according to The Hindu newspaper.