MUNDAKKAI: Until two days ago, Mundakkai was the dream getaway for tourists, with its rolling tea plantations and misty environs, housing a mosque, church, post office, a clutch of shops and scores of houses. Now, it’s a wasteland of sludge and mangled metal and wood, reports Rajeev KR.
Sreejith Kumar VS, who works at a coaching institute in Thrissur, does not know what to hope for as rescue workers work at a concrete slab where his house stood.”My mother, brother and sister’s daughter are missing. We had constructed the second floor to run a homestay just like other residents. It has all been flattened,” he said.
Only a handful of houses now remain besides the CSI Church. It is a race against time for rescue workers. Earthmovers reached ground zero only on Wednesday afternoon
Sreejith Kumar VS’s eyes swelled when rescue workers hit a concrete roof slab, which lay amid sludge and mangled metal pieces and wood, with a huge hammer to break it open.
Sitting on the steps of CSI Church in Mundakkai, one of the few buildings intact at the epicentre of the landslide, Sreejith, an employee at a coaching institute in Thrissur, wore a forlorn look.
“My mother, brother and sister’s daughter are missing. I don’t know whether they are beneath the concrete slab. We had constructed the second floor of our house to run a homestay just like many other residents did. But it has all been flattened,” Sreejith said.
Sreejith is not alone. All those who survived the landslide are facing an uncertain future. For, the village where they were born and grew up – which had a mosque, a post office, around 10 shops and scores of houses – has all been wiped out. Mundakkai, with its picture-postcard-perfect environs, was on its way to becoming a tourist destination over the last three years with many resorts and homestays springing up.
At the epicentre of the landslide, a major portion of the face of the Mundakkai hills blanketed with tree cover collapsed from a height of over 2km and came tumbling down bringing along with it several houses at Punchirimattom, a small settlement uphill, and crashing on Mundakkai village.
The landslide led to the river swelling, triggering a 15-metre-high debris flow which tore through the street-lined shops and houses of Mundakkai. In Mundakkai, only 15 houses now remain along with the CSI Church and some houses at Punchirimattom. The debris flow then rushed downhill and ripped through Chooralmala village, which is 2.5km away.
The only road from Chooralmala to Mundakkai, a part of which was washed away in the landslide, meanders through rolling tea plantations. Hundreds of rescue workers managed to reach Mundakkai on Wednesday along with cadaver dogs of the police to search for missing persons.
Every time the two cadaver dogs barked, people thronged to see if anyone had been spotted. Rescue workers tried to remove mangled steel and concrete with their hands and limited equipment they had as earth movers were brought to the site only in the afternoon.
They picked up several bodies from inside houses, many of which had a stench. Fire and rescue services personnel washed faces of the bodies with bottled water before taking them in stretchers to Chooralmala. Rescuers witnessed several heart wrenching scenes as three bodies were seen in sitting position and a three-member family was seen huddled together.
Safad K walked all the way up to Mundakkai on Wednesday morning, when the Army put in place a temporary walkway across the river, only to find no trace of his parents and younger brother. Even his house was destroyed. All that remained was just a roof slab lying in the sludge. “I have no hope left of finding my family, seeing what is left of my house,” Safad said.