After the landslide in Cheruthoni’s Gandhi Nagar Colony. (Express Photo/Arun Janardhanan)
Six people were killed in a landslide on August 15 in Cheruthoni’s Gandhi Nagar Colony, a settlement near the district headquarters. Their relatives and neighbours had to wait three days for the bodies to be retrieved in extreme weather conditions as Idukki witnessed unprecedented rains.
The landslide struck around 4.45 pm that day. Biju, a 26-year-old fish seller, had just left a relief camp in the colony to take his autorickshaw to a safer place as there were reports of landslides in the area.
“In the morning, there were warnings from panchayat officials to vacate our homes. But no one expected a landslide in this area. Biju and Ponnamma, a 60-year-old local resident, were talking when it happened. They were thrown off the road along with the vehicle. There were six people in the house just below the road and four of them died there. My vehicle, parked on the road, fell on the house below,” said V Gireesh, a local resident who was engaged in the rescue operation.
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In the house below, Mani, a 32-year-old worker, and his wife Saranya, 24, survived. Their two children — four-year-old Vishnu and two-year-old Saranya — were killed along with their grandparents. Mani and Saranya are now in Idukki district hospital with minor fractures.
An hour after the incident, they retrieved the bodies of Ponnamma and Kala Akka, Mani’s mother, Gireesh said. “We could not search for bodies for two days due to heavy rain. On the fourth day, a heavy vehicle was brought in to remove the debris, after which we recovered the other bodies. As they had decayed beyond recognition and there was no road connectivity to shift them to hospital, the district administration issued an order to bury them at the spot,” Gireesh said.
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Idukki District Collector K Jeevan Babu said the major challenge for police and administration was the total collapse of communication and road networks. “After phones stopped working, we used wireless sets. We managed to maintain coordination with Thiruvananthapuram,” he said. A senior government secretary in Thiruvananthapuram said that Idukki had retained a basic administrative system and communication despite maximum challenges.