BENGALURU, India (AP) — Heavy rains that resulted in landslides killing hundreds in southern India last month were worsened by human-caused climate change, a rapid analysis by climate scientists revealed on Tuesday.
The study by World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists using established climate models to quickly determine whether human-caused climate change has played a role in extreme weather events around the world, found that the 15 centimeters (5.91 inches) of The rain that fell in a 24-hour period, from July 29 to 30, was 10% more intense because of global warming. The group expects that new emissions of planet-warming gases will result in intense and increasingly frequent rains, which could lead to such disasters.
Nearly 200 people have died and rescue teams are still searching for more than 130 people missing in the state of Kerala, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations.
“The Wayanad landslides are another catastrophic example of climate change occurring in real time,” said Mariam Zachariah, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and one of the authors of the rapid study.
Last month’s rains that caused the landslides were the third heaviest in Kerala state since India’s meteorological agency began keeping records in 1901.
Last year ended 400 people died due to heavy rains in the Indian Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh. Various studies found that monsoon rains in India have become more irregular as a result of climate change. “Until the world replaces fossil fuels with renewable energy, monsoon rains will continue to intensify, bringing landslides, floods and misery to India,” Zachariah said.
The southern Indian state of Kerala has been particularly vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change. Heavy rains in 2018 flooded large parts of the state, killing at least 500 people, and a cyclonic storm in 2017 killed at least 250 people, including fishermen who were at sea near the state’s coast.
“Millions of people are suffocating in deadly summer heat. However, during monsoons, heavier rains fuel floods and landslides, as we saw in Wayanad,” said Arpita Mondal, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and one of the study’s authors. Earlier this year, another study by the same group found that deadly heat waves that killed at least 100 people in India were found at least 45 times more likely due to global warming.
India, the most populous countryis among the higher current emitters of gases that heat the planet and is also considered one of the most vulnerable regions worldwide to climate impacts.
“When it rains now, it rains a lot. In a warmer world, these extreme events will be more frequent and we cannot prevent them. However, we can try to establish early warning systems for landslides and also prevent any construction activity in landslide-prone regions,” said Madhavan Rajeevan, a retired senior official from India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences and a native of Kerala state.
Tuesday’s study also recommended minimizing deforestation and quarrying, while improving early warning and evacuation systems to help protect people in the region from future landslides and floods. The study states that the Wayanad region has recorded a 62% decrease in forest cover and this may have contributed to the increased risk of landslides during heavy rains.
“Even heavier rainfall is expected as the climate warms, which underlines the urgency of preparing for similar landslides in northern Kerala,” said Maja Vahlberg, climate risk advisor at the Red Cross Climate Center and the Red Crescent, who also authored the study.
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