India, Feb. 4 -- When the massive landslides tore through Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Kerala's Wayanad district in July 2024, they did more than wipe out houses, plantations, and livelihoods.

They also destroyed the fragile economic foundations on which hundreds of families had built their future. Land, cattle, crops, small businesses, and life savings were buried under tonnes of mud. But one thing survived intact-the debt.

Almost two years after the disaster, many survivors are still receiving recovery notices from banks. Families that had lost everything were being asked to repay loans taken for tractors, cows, rubber cultivation, pepper vines, shops, and houses that no longer existed. With no land, no income, and no assets, they wer...