In the early hours of July 30, nature staged its macabre dance on two sleepy villages in the lap of Vellarimala in the Western Ghats, marking the biggest landslide in Kerala’s history.
As the sun rose, Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Wayanad’s Meppadi panchayat had vanished, wiping out roughly 200 households transformed from idyllic landscapes into horrifying trails of havoc.
Between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., a couple of landslides devoured these villages, killing over 300 people, injuring about 200, and leaving nearly 300 missing.
This cataclysmic event has left Kerala in shock, surpassing even the devastation of the 2018 floods. Survivors, grappling with the trauma, witness relentless rescue and relief efforts as more bodies are recovered daily.
Read more: Death rains on Wayanad
Reporting: Abdul Latheef Naha and S. Anandan
Script and production: Shikha Kumari A
Video: Thulasi Kakkat, Special arrangements, PTI
Voice over: Sharmada Venkatasubramanian
