Wayanad Landslide – Flooding in the Hills: Even Minor Support can Be a Crucial Lifeline for Those who Survive Disasters
Rafiqul Islam
The devastation of Wayanad landslide has been so terrible that it cannot be properly imagined without seeing with one’s eyes. The landslide that occurred at midnight on 30 July 2024 following heavy rains for more than a week caused severe damage to Mundakkai, Chooralmala and Vellarimala villages in Wayanad District of Kerala burying approximately 700 homes and businesses. The State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) Kerala has reported the recovery of 231 bodies and 212 body parts, with 630 individuals injured and 119 missing. The missing people are feared to have been drowned in the 20-25 feet thick debris. Human body parts were found in the river more than tens of miles away.
Stone quarrying and illegal closing of small pits and natural springs are attributed as the main causes of landslides. However, the Kerala government rejected these estimates of environmentalists.
Humanitarian Aid International (HAI), Local Organizations’ Coalition for Advancing Localization (LOCAL) platform and Airline joined to deploy us to visit areas of Wayanad landslide and provide possible humanitarian services to the affected. The LOCAL is a platform formed with selected local NGOs of as many as 13 Indian states under aegis of HAI, an Indian NGO, founded by the visionary humanitarian Sri Sudhanshu Shekhar Singh. Prepared with an all-India Roster of disaster response volunteers, the LOCAL is moving with great sincerity and speed in disaster management.
On 5th August, we visited two camps at the SDM LP School campus in Kalpetta where fifty-five migrants from the North and North-East along with local survivors were sheltered. People of MP and Assam worked in tea estates of Mundakkai. The youths of Jharkhand worked in cardamom gardens. They were perplexed as they did not understand Malayalam language. They felt affinity when we spoke Hindi. We tried to reassure everyone by providing them our mobile number for communication in unexpected turn of circumstances. They were not injured though, they witnessed the fury of nature. There is no sign of the shop of the Bihari man who, escaping narrowly from toppling over roofs with serious injuries is laying in Hospital. His four kin perished in the massive torrent.
Dinner at Shreyas, the chair of Wayanad IAG and our present abode, tabled a brief discussion on overall situation. Local people requested to help them clean houses that have been filled with mud and silt. We decided in affirmative right away. Led by Father Saji, the Convent Sisters and Seminary Brothers of Shreyas will provide physical and programmatic services. Mr. Joshi from Kottayam, a manufacturer of cleaning equipment, will volunteer in manual work by using pump sets, suction etc along with his hands.
We set out at 9 a.m. and procured an enough gumboots, wipers, mopes, disinfectants etc. In Kottanad, we cleaned the house of an elderly couple who had to take shelter in someone else’s house due to the unhygienic siltation. The shelter camp at Kottanad UP School is vacated for educational purposes and given a thorough cleaning.
In a small camp nearby, 10 people of 3 families from Bihar took refuge. Huts of these Mundakkai tea estate workers have been washed away. That night at half past one, Rajesh, a quadragenarian, came out when there was an unusual tremor along with loud noise. He sensed moving flash lights and people screaming. In the mayhem, Rajesh dragged his friends and family and went to a safe place by lighting a mobile flash. The sound of descending hills, the flickering of torches and the screams created a frightening hellish atmosphere. The tile roof of a neighbor had collapsed injuring the resident severely. They are now desperate to go to Bihar. As a translator, I connect them to a humanitarian organization which takes responsibility for their return.
Four of us travel to Chooralmala, one of the most affected villages in mountain slopes. The small beautiful stream is now a wide river of mud in which settlement is buried.
Mr. Salam is a professional driver and owner of a mini-truck. That night, he was with the Imam (Muslim parson) in the mosque as his family was away. He didn’t sleep. Hearing a loud noise after 1 AM, he called the people nearby and climbed up a hill. That was Qayamat, says Salam. They were shocked. Salam’s Bolero pickup, usually parked on the roadside disappeared along with the road. He has no regrets over the loss of livelihood. Salam’s eyes ooze with the pain of losing the villagers.
Omair was studying IT in Karnataka. The landslide news brought him home. We see the ruins of the village with him. The multi-storied building near the mosque at Chooralmala acted like a fortress, holding back considerable amount of stones and logs that had rolled down. Omair identified his uncle’s house that lay half buried in the middle of the widened muddy river. His slurring speech failed to describe the tragic end of the family.
With a hope to find a body or a part beneath 20-25 feet debris, various rescue teams excavated day after day. The NDRF personnel were relaxing around a log in the middle of the soggy river bed when I raised my voice. They were surprised to hear Hindi after a long time. Search operation is in the last stage. The previous day, they dug out a human arm, decomposed for more than a week and stinking. They are digging today for the rest of the body, but with fading hopes. We salute their untiring efforts as we move away to talk to other search teams boosting their efforts.
We take a few moments and look at the ruins trying to wonder at the infinite power of nature.
Joshi’s team applied disinfectants after cleaning Salam’s well. Houses of survivors are deserted. We had to return as there was a prohibition on working in such houses. The day was ending, too.
The next day the camp at Ripon, we met 14 migrants including four women and five children from Barpeta and Chirang districts of Assam. Like others, they chose to migrate as their females get employment opportunity here. They came to Attamala tea estate one month ago. In Besides partial damage to the estate, road communication has been disrupted. These laborers had taken advances from the garden authority. There is no problem in the camp though, they are suffering from depression. Their pockets are empty being jobless these nine days. Couple of months will pass before the work starts. If they return, they will remain unemployed. Travel with families is expensive, too. We opined, they must request the garden manager to coordinate with other gardens to engage them temporarily. We assured help in the talk if needed. We told, we can be contacted at any hour. They didn’t even have talk-time validity. They were happy and felt assured when we recharged their phone.
Here we meet volunteers from the Snehakoottayam Charitable Society who travelled 300 kms from Cochin. Speaking to Rafiq Usman, we learnt that they felt obliged serving as volunteers in disasters. Their team consisting women and youth has been providing cooking and catering services for more than 400 camp inmates. Serving from day one, they ran short of certain supplies. We immediately offered to meet the shortage and satisfied ourselves. Before leaving, we learnt that the garden manager of Attamala assured job for Assamese migrants.
In the Civil Station, District Disaster Management Programme Officer Dr. Madhila gave us a glimpse of the government’s stand. Government is creating a lot of facilities for the affected survivors. A large number of people sheltered merely for security reasons are being sent home. The working environment for NGO is yet awaited.
We shared the feeling that Migrant workers except those from Assam desperately wanted to go home. Those from Assam want to stay back and consider camp days a waste of time. Stating that our perception was correct, Dr. Madhila added that they are resilient; Kerala is like Assam in respect of disaster.
August 8, the 10th day of landslide havoc. At the gate of a HS School camp in Meppadi was a broken-hearted healthy young man probably in his early 40s. He was looking at the camp with a knee on the bike seat. This Chooralmala youth is a welding mechanic. His mother, sister, wife and child went missing in the night of havoc when he was at the workshop. Missing means being buried 20-25 feet beneath the rubbles. He was looking at the camp as he spoke. Will he chance upon seeing his family hanging in the camp! His voice choked and eyes watered. We dare not ask his name.
Sruthi was radiating a different light in this camp. She was paddling tirelessly on a sewing machine in the camp veranda. Several senior women were waiting with clothes in hands. On her first visit to the camp, she felt the displeasure of the women wearing dresses that required alteration. The dresses they received as help were oversized. Creating a unique story, she rented a sewing machine for a couple of days, bought threads on her own and sat in the camp. She kept stitching and altering clothes of the inmates with a smile. Sruthi is no more bothered by her upcoming bank exams which she was preparing for. Inside, she was upset that the machine had to be returned. We found pleasure in inviting her to Kalpetta to buy sewing machine. Couple of days later she was seen in the camp with three machines assisted by friends.
We found 15 Nepalese migrants, including women and children, in the camp at DePAUL Convent School. They were restaurant workers at 900 Kandi Eco Park known by Glass Bridge. They felt that engagement at Eco Park wouldn’t start anytime soon. They were also perplexed whether the owner will pay their last month’s remuneration or not. The matrix of being joblessness, staying back or travelling with families was biting them from inside. They faced discomfort in terms of language, too. We promised to jointly establish the rights by talking to any authority in case of any injustice done to them. We told them to keep in touch with us over phone. Our efforts seem to bring some confidence in them.
4-30pm My deployment in Wayanad is over. Nahith and I took pictures of the farewell with the church in the background. Nahith Begum, Program Officer of humanitarian services at HAI, is an immensely resourceful, accomplished and dedicated humanitarian worker on disaster scene. Since day one, she was my guide and programmer without whom Wayanad journey would have made no sense. Special Thanks: Abdul Malik, Tarini Ross!
(The author, Rafiqul Islam is a disaster response volunteer from Assam)
