Search for livelihood ends in tragedy as Tirthahalli landslip buries migrant family
A migrant family from Koppal district died after a landslip triggered by heavy rains buried their shed in Tirthahalli. The victims, including a young couple and their child, were in the region seeking seasonal employment.
Why it matters
This tragedy highlights the vulnerability of migrant laborers to climate-related disasters and the lack of safe housing infrastructure in rural areas.
Lakshmi was in tears as she recounted the early hours of Sunday, when a wall of mud and rock swallowed the shed where four families from her village had been sheltering.
“We woke up to the sound of something falling on the roof sheets. My brother, who was in the adjacent compartment, alerted everyone to move out,” she said.
Around 25 people living in a row of zinc-sheet sheds ran out to save themselves. But some whose compartments lay closer to the base of the hillock could not get out in time. “They could not come out, and within a few minutes the wall behind the shed came crumbling down, engulfing whatever came its way,” said Ms. Lakshmi, a native of Kakkaragol village in Karatagi taluk of Koppal district.
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