The people of Kalmakaru and Kadamakallu villages — about 250 families in all — woke up early on Saturday to the horrifying sight of gushing floodwater from Kodagu washing away two bridges on the Kadamakallu-Kalmakaru river — both essential links to the rest of the world for them.
The deluge carried with it top soil and huge trees. Before the residents knew what was happening, the approach to three other bridges across the same river was also swept away and water entered homes.
Scared, the villagers spent a day in isolation before they picked up courage, after the water receded on Sunday, to build temporary footbridges using arecanut palms to cross over. About 700 people from the two villages continue to depend on these precarious bridges to travel out of their villages for essential commodities.
Narendra Bilimale, an agriculturist in Kalmakaru, on Tuesday showed a group of visiting reporters the two bridges across the Kadamakallu-Kalmakaru river at Kadamakallu and Yaladala that had been washed away.
“The approach roads to three other bridges built across the same river, at Kajimadkka, Padpu, and Kalmakaru, too have been washed away,” he said. Pointing to a temporary bridge made by them, he said, “This may also be swept away any time if it rains heavily in Kodagu again.”
Officials visited the village on Monday and went away after making an assurance of building a hanging bridge. But they made no promise of an immediate solution.
Meanwhile, seven Malekudiya tribal families from Kalmakaru village have deserted their homes. There are a few others who spend their nights outside the village but return home in the morning, said Mahesh K.P., a resident of Kalmakaru.
Both the villages are at the tail-end of Dakshina Kannada, on the foothills of Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary in Kodagu. Though Kadamakallu falls under Galibeedu Gram Panchayat in Kodagu, it is just half a kilometre from Kalmakaru in Dakshina Kannada. The 20-km road from Kukke Subrahmanya to Kalmakaru ends at the private Kadamakallu rubber estate. One can see nothing but the rubber estate and the Western Ghats beyond that.
