Kerala’s Wayanad, nestled in lush green forests, braved the unforgiving ferocity of nature’s destructive forces on July 30 as devastating landslides triggered by heavy rains killed over 300 people and left thousands homeless.
As the battered district picks up the pieces and comes to terms with the tragedy, it’s the stories of human resilience, hope and courage that survivors — and onlookers — say will remain etched in their memories forever.
One such story, which captures the essence of nature’s dichotomy, was shared by an elderly woman named Sujatha from a relief camp at Meppadi.
Sujatha, a tea estate worker, recalled how she and her grandchild spent the night next to a wild tusker and remained unharmed by the animal as they watched everything she owned get destroyed by the landslide.
“We barely escaped from our toppling house. We ran to a nearby hill at the edge of the forest. Once we reached there, we realised that we were standing next to a tusker,” she told news agency PTI.
Sujatha said she spoke to the wild elephant as she would to a human. “I told him (the elephant) that we lost everything and asked him not to attack us. We spent the entire night next to him,” she said, marveling at the geniality of the tusker in the midst of nature’s fury.
Sharing her experience with another news portal, she said the elephant seemed to understand her predicament. Sujatha said the tusker stood guard till rescuers arrived in the morning. “I could see its eyes welling up as the dawn broke,” she added.
Other survivors of the landslides, Sirajudeen and his family, watched helplessly as their home, including the means of his livelihood, an autorickshaw, crumbled beneath the weight of monstrous boulders.
Sirajudeen said he heard loud noises and water gushing past in the early hours of Tuesday. When they saw muddy water gushing into their home, they somehow scrambled to the higher ground behind their house. “We saw huge boulders and trees crushing everything we had. Our autorickshaw is completely destroyed,” the family said.
Ganesh, who belongs to Chooralmala and works as a security guard, had come home late on Monday night when he saw muddy water. “I woke up my wife who was sleeping. I didn’t waste a single second. We left the house and went to a nearby hilltop,” he said.
Unfortunately, Ganesh lost his sister, her husband, her sister’s son and daughter-in-law, as well as her sister’s grandchildren. “As the water rose, we ran to the hilltop. We saw my sister’s house being washed away in the first landslide. The second landslide took away my house too,” he said.
Some survivors have been on the lookout for their missing loved ones. A father was seen crying for help to identify his 14-year-old daughter.
“My youngest daughter is missing. Unless I can identify her, I will not believe that she is gone. I will consider that she has gone to some faraway place for higher studies,” he said, breaking down. His daughter Anamika, a ninth standard student, was staying with her grandmother, who lived nearby.
Even though her father came out of the house hearing the loud noises of the landslide, all he could do was watch helplessly as the house with his mother and daughter got washed away.
The landslides occurred around 2am and 4.10am on Tuesday, catching people off-guard while they were sleeping, leading to a high number of casualties. The picturesque hamlets of Mundakkai, Chooralmala, Attamala, and Noolpuzha have been devastated by the massive landslides triggered by torrential rains.
Comments
0 comment