Roof tiler's nightmare

In this city with an annual rainfall of 100 inches, the roof of a building is its most important element.
The Indian tile industry was founded in Mangalore, on the southern Arabian Sea coast by George Plebot, when the Basle Mission Tile Factory was opened in 1865.
These red, mold formed, laterite clay tiles were preferred over all others by the British for their civic buildings in Bombay.
Today's construction, incorporating secure, low maintenance concrete roofs, has led to a big drop in demand for these tiles and many factories have closed.
For millenia, the ancestor of the Mangalore tile, half round terracotta tiles produced in local villages, have protected homes on the western monsoon coast of India... as repair skills are lost and production ceases, is this the last gasp of the Indian tiled roof?