The twin Wayanad villages of Chooralmala and Mundakkai resembled graveyards after devastating landslides struck the hilly district of Kerala.
Rescue and relief operations continue for the third day in Wayanad.
The agony and sighs of rescued people linger over the uneasy silence of the dead, buried beneath slush and concrete rubble in the landslide-hit regions of Chooralmala and Mundakkai.
Heart-wrenching images of a father searching for his missing daughter, along with others in similar situations, played out on television screens, even as Kerala Revenue Minister K. Rajan stated that exact figures for those missing after the landslides are still not available.
State health minister Veena George said that 256 autopsies have been done, and 154 bodies have been handed over to district administration.
Several people remain missing in the landslide-hit region, where rescue operators are contending with adverse conditions, including waterlogged soil, as they search through destroyed homes and buildings for survivors or bodies.
While rescue operations are in full swing, it remains unclear how many tea-estate workers and family members died in the disaster.
Most of the victims were asleep when the landslides struck between 1:30 a.m. and 4 a.m.