Villages buried, dozens trapped: 34 killed in Indonesia landslides

A devastating landslide in Indonesia's Pasirlangu village has claimed 34 lives, with 32 people still missing. The disaster, triggered by heavy rainfall last week, destroyed dozens of homes and forced over 650 residents to evacuate. Rescue teams are carefully searching the unstable area in West Bandung, Java island, amid fears of further landslides."The identified bodies will be handed over to the victims' families for burial," said national disaster mitigation agency spokesman Abdul Muhari on Tuesday evening. Local officials worry the number of missing people could be much higher than reported.The landslide has severely damaged more than 50 houses in the mountain village. Rescue workers are using both manual methods and heavy machinery to search for survivors, but their efforts are hampered by poor weather conditions.West Java's governor Dedi Mulyadi has blamed nearby vegetable plantations for the disaster and promised to relocate affected residents. The removal of forests to create these plantations has made the area more vulnerable to landslides, as trees help absorb rainfall and their roots stabilize the ground.This incident follows similar disasters that struck Sumatra island in late 2022, where flooding and landslides killed approximately 1,200 people and displaced more than 240,000. Such natural disasters are frequent in Indonesia during the rainy season, which typically runs from October to March. The government has highlighted deforestation as a major factor contributing to these disasters. The loss of forest cover has left many areas across the Indonesian archipelago more susceptible to landslides and flooding during the wet season.