Kodagu floods: He helplessly watched mother get washed away

MADIKERI: While Kodagu district administration confirmed the death of eight people in floods in the last few days, a man narrates how his mother disappeared in a landslide even as he watched helplessly.

A heartbroken Mittu Ganapathi of Hebbettageri says his mother Minnanda Umavva frantically waved at him seeking help when a landslide crushed his new house. But he could do little.

“She waved at us from under the debris of a landslide and screamed for help. But I was helpless and she was washed away in front of my eyes,” said Ganapathi.

He stayed with his mother, wife Jamuna, daughters Sangeetha and Thangamma and son Mandanna Sachin in their six-month-old house at Hebbettageri. A farmer, he felt accomplished to have been able to build a new house for his family. However, fate had its own story written for Ganapthi.

On August 15 morning, Ganapathi and his family were having breakfast when a villager from Mukkodlu asked Ganapathi for directions to reach Madikeri town. This is when Ganapathi’s family heard a thunderous sound. They saw a tree thrown to a distance, he said.

“The landslide was massive and it stopped right at our feet. But my mother, who was still downstairs, was pulled along the landslide. I saw her two hands waving at me and I heard her scream ‘kapadi’ (save me). But by the time I could reach her, she was pulled kilometres along the landslide,” he recalls with teary eyes.