A massive landslide that swallowed 44 houses in an Indian village might have been averted, or at least minimized, if basic environmental standards had been employed, environmentalists and geologists said as the death toll climbed to 134 on Tuesday.
More deaths were expected as rescue-and-recovery operations continued in the hillside village of Malin, located in the Pune district of Maharashtra state. The landslide occurred during a torrential downpour last week.
"Relentless rain naturally was the trigger. But the use of heavy machinery to flatten land for agriculture may have aggravated the crumbling of the hilltop," Ashim Kumar Saha of the Geographical Survey of India told the Hindu newspaper.
Medha Patkar, a prominent environmental activist, had a similar explanation. "Deforestation leads to land erosion, which leads to landslide," she said.
"The mountain located at the right side of Malin has been a victim of complete deforestation," said environmentalist Vishwambhar Choudhari. "It was a severe landslide, but the presence of forests would have decreased the gravity of it."
At least one local legislator, Dilip Walse Patil, discounted the environmentalists' explanation.
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