Kerala requests Centre to declare Wayanad landslide a national disaster

The Kerala government has requested the Centre to declare the catastrophic landslide that devastated at least three villages in Vythiri taluk in the Wayanad district on July 30 a national disaster.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in Thrissur on Sunday that the severity of the destruction wrought by the massive earthfall had few parallels in recent times in the country.

Mr. Vijayan said the repercussions of the landslide, triggered by heavy rain, were yet to subside. Kerala was still in a state of shock. The government has placed the official death toll at 221. It could rise further as more than 200 people were missing, and rescue workers were retrieving more bodies and dismembered body parts from the mud and debris-covered disaster zone.