Homes lost in sea of mud, Wayanad survivors recall horror, neighbours saying ‘nothing will happen’

Families sheltering in a school in Meppadi panchayat area say most of them survived because they paid heed to officials who were constantly urging them to leave, but many stayed back.

Mundakkai is the worst-affected town in Wayanad, with the landslide leaving the town entirely flattened. | Aneesa PA | ThePrint

Wayanad: Alarmed by the heavy rains, Khadiyumma and her family left their home at Punchirimattam village atop Mundakkai town in Wayanad around 10 pm Monday.

The family took shelter in a house near Chooralmala town, belonging to a friend of Khadiyumma’s son. Nearly three hours later, a loud noise and people bawling woke the 63-year-old woman. Hours later, another jolt rocked the locality.

All of Mundakkai and many parts of Chooralamala disappeared in the three landslides that hit the two towns within three hours, claiming over 290 lives.  

On that fateful night, Khadiyumma and her family of five ran for their lives, joined by many others in their neighbourhood. The family survived the night in a relatively unscathed neighbour’s house in Chooralmala with 20 other people while the river speedily engulfed several parts of the town.

The three wards in Wayanad affected by landslides that night — Mundakkai, Chooralmala, and Attamala — had over 1,000 households, with 560 houses flattened to the ground, said panchayat officials.  

The officials said they had advised villagers to relocate to safer places after the region logged 572 mm of rainfall in 48 hours on 28 and 29 July.

‘They said nothing will happen’

The Government Lower Primary School in Meppadi, where displaced families are sheltering | Aneesha PA | ThePrint

Since Wednesday morning, Khadiyumma, her son, daughter-in-law, and her three grandchildren have been sheltering in the Government Lower Primary School in Meppadi with 93 other families.

The families, mostly survivors of the massive landslides that hit the Mundakkai and Chooralmala towns in the Meppadi panchayat area in Wayanad, have taken shelter in nine classrooms in the school.

Besides the landslide survivors, the camp also houses families from the landslide-prone areas of Meppadi.

According to revenue department records, 9,346 people from vulnerable areas are staying in 92 relief camps across the district. Of these camps, nine are in the Meppadi panchayat area.

In Punchirimattam, where Khadiyumma’s house once stood amid scenic hills and tea plantations, there now lies a brown patch of mud. The river has reclaimed the land.

“It’s okay. We escaped, that is enough. We can even stay in a tent,” Khadiyumma said, speaking to ThePrint.

The family has lost their immediate neighbours — Usha (54), her husband Ravi (65) and their son Sumesh (32) — to the tragedy.

“We called them to join us before leaving. But they said nothing will happen,” Khadiyumma said.

The rescue team recovered Sumesh’s body Thursday and Ravi’s body Wednesday. However, Usha is still missing.

As Khadiyumma recalled the events, her daughter-in-law’s phone received several notifications on a local WhatsApp group. The notifications were pictures of retrieved bodies, with the names of the identified ones.

There were heavy rains for a week at least before the landslides, said Khadiyumma. She said officials from the Meppadi panchayat visited the neighbourhood and asked the residents to shift to safer places a few days before tragedy struck.

“On Monday night, the local WhatsApp group was abuzz with advisories from the panchayat, urging us to shift,” Khadiyumma recalled.

What prompted Khadiyumma and her family to leave was the memory of the 2020 landslide that hit their locality. After the heavy rains that year, a minor landslide caused some damage to some of the houses in Mundakkai.

A narrow escape, and a big loss

In the classroom next to the one now housing Khadiyumma’s family, 35-year-old Arifa K. from Chooralmala said she, fortunately, just had happened to move to her parent’s house on Monday evening. Her husband, Muhammed Arif (35), a catering worker, was in Trichy for work.

Staying in her parents’ house, a kilometre from Chooralmala, Arifa said she clearly remembers the overpowering smell of mud that hit the locality after the landslide.

She, her three children, and her parents — startled out of sleep — moved to the first floor for safety. Though they had a narrow escape, they lost 21 members of the family to the disaster, with the bodies of only seven found so far, said Arifa.

Four doctors from the Vadakara Cooperative Hospital and Mananthavady’s St Joseph Mission Hospital are working at the shelter from 10-5 pm every day, said Tency Sebastian, a principal of the school housing the displaced families now.

Besides medical assistance, multiple teams of councillors and clinical psychologists from private and public organisations are working at the camp to help the survivors.

Sebastian said many organisations and individuals have also donated food and essentials, including water, dresses, sanitary products, beds, mats, etc., to the school.  

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)