Wayanad landslide survivors recall scary experiences
Tragic aftermath of landslides in Wayanad leaves survivors grappling with loss and injuries
Anil of Mundakkai and his wife, Jhansi, survivors of the Chooralmala landslide, undergoing treatment at Dr. Moopen’s Medical College in Wayanad.
Avanthika is in deep sleep at the orthopaedics ward of Dr. Moopen’s Medical College Hospital, Wayanad, near Meppadi. Small plastic bags filled with dresses and toys donated by good Samaritans are scattered under the cot of the eight-year-old child.
“Please don’t wake my child now, she will start asking for her parents and brother,” Avanthika’s grandmother Lakshmi implores a nurse passing by.
Avanthika lost her father Prashob, an autorickshaw driver, mother Vijayalakshmi, a tea estate worker at Harrisons Malayalam Plantation, and 14-year-old brother Achu in the catastrophic landslides that struck Chooralmala on July 30.
Wayanad landslides: Memories of tragedy haunt Chooralmala residents
“Though nine days have passed after the disaster, we are yet to tell her of the terrible loss of her family,” says Lakshmi said. Avanthika sustained injuries all over her body and fractured her right leg in the landslide.
Whenever Avanthika enquires about her parents, her grandmother repeats with a heavy heart, “They are in the adjacent rooms with injuries. Once you can walk I will take you there. I don’t know how long I can keep the harsh truth from her.”
Anil, a painter who had been working abroad for the past two years, recalls that his family had slept a little earlier on the fateful day as he had to return to Croatia from Bengaluru on July 31. He had reached Mundakkai about a month back to visit his family, including his father, mother, wife, and two-year-old child.
They lived in an estate row house as his parents worked in a tea plantation there. “I got a phone call from a friend and while we were talking, a slushy flash flood threw me away along with my cot after destroying the fragile houses,” he says. “I found myself being thrown around with rocks and logs and finally got stuck on a stone wall of the Mundakkai LP school.”
Anil of Mundakki and his wife, Jhansi, survivors of the Chooralmala landslide, undergoing treatment at Dr. Moopen’s Medical College Wayanad.
Anil, however, could survive with injuries all over his body and his left shoulder and spinal cord fractured.
“Amid the wrath of nature, I saw a hand flowing on the Punnapuzha river holding a mobile phone. I thought it was my wife and pulled her ashore but found it was my neighbour.”
Guided by the flashing torches of estate workers engaged in rescue operations, he managed to reach the spot along with the woman. The next day, Anil realised that though his father and wife were rescued, his mother and child were missing.
Watch: Death rains on Wayanad: Ground Zero
Suhruthi Mahapatra, a postgraduate medical student from Odisha, was fully covered in slush when she arrived here on July 31, K.A. Manoj Narayanan, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, told The Hindu. Moreover, she was in shock and had sustained fractures on her leg and injuries all over her body. She was taken to the medical ICU and put on ventilator. Her condition has improved over the last two days, he says.
Ms. Mahapatra, member of a four-member team from Odisha, were staying at a resort at Mundakkai. Two among them had gone missing after the landslides and her friend Priyadarshini, a nurse, was rescued and left for Odisha two days ago, says Dr. Narayanan.
As many as 267 landslide survivors were admitted to the hospital and all of them except 53 had been discharged. The condition of three persons in the ICU is improving, he says. The proximity of the hospital to the landslide site helped to reduce the death toll.
As many as four staff of the institution, including K.U Neethu, A.M..Shafeena, S. Divya and R. Bijeeh, were killed in the landslides, he added.
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