Noved would turn on July 7 July, but fate had other plans. It lies in a single grave with its siblings Dyan and Ishan in Puthumale, Mepadi, their lives shortened the devastating Wayanad disaster of July 30, 2024.
Despite the light showers, the remnants of the heartbreaking homage remained left by their mourning parents: cakes, chocolate bars, pens and toys wheels scattered on the grave, reminder of joy that would never have been.
The darkness of that fateful night still persists in the minds enjoying the disasters of Chooralma-Mundakkai. 30 July 2024 was a day that will be remembered forever as a day of unwavering tragedy in Wayanad.
The shouts of lost, shouts of frightened and desperate lamentation for help are still echoing through the devastated landscape, which is a scary reminder of lives forever.
For the survivors, the memories of that night are a painful wound that refuses to recover. These memories constantly remind them of what has been lost and what cannot be regained. When trying to rebuild their lives, the question that pursues them is: Will the injuries that night ever disappear, or will they remain a permanent scar on the hearts of those who have experienced it?
Noufal Kalathhingal still holds the weight of his unimaginable loss: 11 family members, including his mother, wife and children. Yet he finds comfort in the rebuilding of his life. His bakery-cum-restaurant, “July 30”, is a reminder of the day that has forever changed his life. The date of his store is a bitter reminder of the family he lost when he was gone in Muscat.
A lonely schoolboy stands desolated in Chooralmala, a village devastated by destructive landslides that hit 30 July 2024. Photo Credit: Sakeer Hussain
Noufal’s voice trembled as he revealed the inspiration of the café. “My wife has always dreamed of returning home to set up a café. On July 30.
“I still hear the shouts of my wife Shaija for help in my mind. I lost it and 11 other family members, including my brother and his wife, the fateful night,” says Kr Unikrishnan. The clump on the face of this Mason suggests a fragile acceptance, a preliminary ceasefire with an unbearable loss.
“I close my eyes and the memories are flooding back. The sound of land landslides, like a massive reducing helicopter, echoes in my mind almost a year later,” recalls Abdul Salam, a pick -up driver who lost 29 family members. “That night she taught me what was afraid,” he says, and his eyes shone with rare intensity.
The cordial stories of tragedy, survival and unbearable losses are a well-known narrative for hundreds of people who have experienced a disaster. They are spread through Wayanad and live in rented accommodation. Many still consider it unbearable even consider returning to a village that was once their home and jewel by Mepadi Panchayat in Wayanad.
The government declared a substantial area of Mundakkai and Choralmaly as dangerous for housing. Several houses that leaked damage to landslides and floods were also declared unfit to occupy. The Committee led by General John Mathai identified 107.5 hectares as dangerous and recommended in these vulnerable areas to reduce construction and human activity.
The District Administration banned the entrance to the areas devastated by a disaster, which were once popular among tourists for their picturesque landscape. Repeated requests from this reporter to overlook the devastation in the first anniversary also fell on deaf ears. “Sorry, we can’t let you go,” says another district judge Wayanad K. Devaki.
The place is significant risks with open holes hidden under the layers of soft mud and septic tanks, potentially free of concrete covers and create hidden danger. The careless step could be disastrous. In addition, Bailey Bridge, hastily built by the army soon after a disaster, has developed worrying cracks in its foundation, says government officials who refuse to be quoted.
The government cleans the debris, including massive boulders. Cooperative Cooperative Society Uralungal Labor Cooperative has begun to clean the PunnaPuzha river as part of the 195-Crore River rejuvenation project.
This photograph of a leaflet taken on July 30, 2024 and issued by Indian national strength to disasters (NDRF) shows the damaged car at the landslide site in Wayanad. | Photo Credit: AFP
The official toll buildings are 482 destroyed, 242 partially damaged and 661 are considered unfit for housing, with most buildings are residential houses.
Official records suggest that landslides caused 298 deaths, with 32 people reported missing. The renewal efforts brought 223 parts of the body from different areas. The flood waters swept broken limbs, interrupted heads and disassembled Torso downstream, cascading through treacherous waterfalls, including Sochipar Falls before leaving the footprint of unimaginable horrors to Lazhakkada, almost 50 km from Chooracemala. Furthermore, 35 people were injured and significant damage to crops was reported, with 29,2216 hectares of agricultural land destroyed.
People Mepadi estimate that deaths could exceed the official number and can potentially reach 400 due to suspicion of migrating workers. Abdul Salam shares this concern and states that the process of DNA examination prevented the absence of references to the corresponding part of the body. “It composed the number of mortality,” he says.
The Harrison Malayalam Cemetery in Puthumal is equipped with tombstones with cryptic labels such as N18 and N244, reflecting the confusion of unidentified victims. Many of the numbered tombstones have been replaced by inscriptions with the names of the victims as soon as they were identified.
The only grave of NIVED, Dyan and Ishan, the victims of landslides, is gently decorated with toys, cakes and chocolate, which sincerely a tribute from their destroyed parents. | Photo Credit: Sakeer Hussain
The cemetery is a testimony to municipal harmony that defined the lives of the inhabitants of Chooral and Mundakkai. In death, as in life, the victims of different vortex resting, while the Hinda and Muslims lie side by side. The grave of niyas erakkadan is set between those Vishnu Sudevan and Rukmini Vadakke cheruvil, while the grave of Rahmat Latheef is lined with sudevan and vs. Sajimon.
Death is the highest baver, they say.
The famous landscape of the cemetery tells the fairy tale Heart. Some graves hold siblings together in eternal rest, while others are scary evidence of the brutality of the disaster, with a single life scattered over multiple graves: head in one, torso in another, other other, painful reminders of fragments of the lost life.
“The visit of this place will inevitably leave its mark in your heart,” warns President of the Wayanad district Panchayat Samshad Marakkar. He is unable to hide the scars of the trauma, which in the first hours of July 30, 2024 tolerated as a leading rescuer.
Despite the trauma they have endured, the survivors are trying to cope with their new reality and live in temporary shelters. With humanitarian aid, however, some show remarkable resistance and determination to rebuild their lives.
After the tragedy, a rush of organizations rushed to help the survivors, but the effort for help was disturbed by uneven distribution. Some received sufficient support, while others were left with an empty hand, supporting dissatisfaction and protests. The confusion was enhanced by the blurred boundaries between private and government help, and many of them felt frustrated and overlooked.
Workers who were transported in an open pick-up supply to a tea room near Chooralmal. | Photo Credit: Sakeer Hussain
The words of Abdula Majeda reflect the frustration: “Some people have gained undeserved benefits, while others did not receive what they deserved. The organization gave me an authorickshaw, but I cannot run it without permission. To spend £ 1.75.
While private groups and organizations have entered to help the survivors to rebuild their livelihood, government support was rare. The government initiative to create a tailor village, which provided sewing machines for the survivors, fell, because only a few were interested in the business. Some recipients even sold machines they received for half the price.
The survivors had to upset so that the temporary auxiliary measures would spread to a year. Initially, the government offered families to 6,000 GBP a month as rent and 9,000 GBP for two members of each family for three months as financial support and the survivors fought for the help of this assistance until July.
“The government’s inflexible rules did not stay and forced them to fight for their rights.
Marakkar points out that government strict rules forced the survivors to fight for their rights. “The John Mathai report was an example where the protests led to the fact that Dr. Mathai revised his rules,” he says. “If his document was scientific, it could not change any agitation,” he adds.
The government promotes a massive rehabilitation project and builds a model black neighborhood in Elstone Estate in Kalpetta. However, this initiative was disrupted by confusion, with political parties and organizations offering competing housing schemes. The Indian EU Muslim League is contrary to the government of approximately 100 houses.
Many people ask the government about the use of the CRORE 776 GBP contributed to the Fund for Help in the Disasters of the Chief Minister for the Wayanad tragedy.
The new bus bridges the gap and converts students from Chooralmaly to the temporary premises of higher secondary schools by a higher school after the landslides destroyed the Vellarimal School. | Photo Credit: Sakeer Hussain
Revenue Ministry of Ministry K. Rajan Says the Government Has SPENT ₹ 108.21 Crore on Relief Efforts, WHICH INCLUDES ₹ 43.77 CRORE FOR LAND ACQUISITION, ₹ 13.3 CRORE IN COMPENSATION TO VICTIM FAMILIES, ₹ 15.6 Crore in Housing Assistance to 104 Families, ₹ 10.1 Crore for For LIVELIILLIODY Support to 1,133 People, ₹ 1.3 Crore in Immediate Aid, ₹ 4.3 Crore in Rental Assistance, and Additional amounts for injured persons and funeral costs.
The government began to work on a model black neighborhood with 410 houses on 64 hectares of land on the bypass Kalpetta. Currently, 104 recipients have decided and received every 15 lakh. Government officials say they will complete the city district until December. Each recipient receives 1,000 square. FT House on seven cents of land, with equipment, including a health center, modern Anganwadi, commercial premises and community center. The construction is solved by ULCC and the model house is almost prepared.
As their wounds slowly begin to recover, the people of Chooralmal and Mundakkai will continue to carry the scars of that fateful night. Their way to healing will be long and painful. When they rebuild their homes and their lives, they remind us that their resistance will be the main light in the dark.
