At least two people were killed, nine injured, and seven missing after debris accumulated near a twin tunnel project site in ecologically fragile Western Ghats slid down amid heavy monsoon rain on Tuesday, burying shelters housing the labourers, a house, and a church at Kalladi in Kerala’s Wayanad. CCTV footage from a nearby shop showed the debris sweeping away over half a dozen vehicles, including a tanker truck, and bystanders.Heavy rain affected the rescue operations.In July 2024, landslides in Wayanad amid heavy rains left 254 people dead. It was one of Kerala’s deadliest tragedies, blamed on deforestation, among other reasons.Chief minister VD Satheesan said the district collector and the disaster management authority had ordered the tunnel project contractors to remove the debris a fortnight ago, on June 20. “But the contractors failed to remove the debris. There has been heavy rain in the region, which has affected the ongoing rescue operations,” Satheesan said in Thiruvananthapuram.Wayanad received 265 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours that ended at 8:30am on Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department said, as it issued a red alert for the day.Satheesan said that rescuers from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Kerala Fire and Rescue personnel were at the site. He added that the missing people include officials supervising the project and labourers. “All safety protocols must be adhered to while implementing projects like these. The disaster here points to inaction on the part of the project contractors,” he said.The twin tunnel project is part of an alternate all-weather route connecting Meppadi in Wayanad with Anakkampoyil in the Kozhikode district to reduce traffic on the congested Thamarassery Ghat road, which is prone to landslips during the monsoon.The project includes 8.11 km of a twin tunnel beneath the fragile hills and forests of the Western Ghats. Environmentalists opposed the project, cautioning that drilling a tunnel through the already-fragile Ghats would destabilise slopes in the region, trigger landslides and interfere with the movement of wild elephants.Satheesan’s predecessor, Pinarayi Vijayan, inaugurated the blasting works of the tunnels in March this year. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2029.Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the member of Parliament from Wayanad, said all efforts are on to rescue those trapped. She added that Satheesan is monitoring relief efforts, and the police and NDRF were at the site for some time. State Disaster Response Force teams and civil defence volunteers were also at the site.State minister T Siddique, who is also the local legislator, blamed the unscientific dumping of debris as part of the tunnel project for the disaster. “There were prior indications of inaction on the part of the project officials. These concerns were raised at multiple meetings with officials of the Konkan Railway Corporation Limited [Special Purpose Vehicle for the project]. But it seems no corrective steps have been taken.”Satheesan asked Siddique and AP Anil Kumar, the revenue minister, to rush to Wayanad to oversee the rescue and relief operations. A relief camp was due to be opened at a government school for the relocation of people from landslip-prone settlements.