The CCTV footage is chilling to watch — a wall of slush-like debris crashing through the Meenakshi bridge, sweeping away a tanker lorry like it weighs nothing, the vehicle finally slamming to a halt just inches from a couple who had fallen while running from the debris flow..
Somehow, they walk away alive.
That couple – Koodammal, 37, and her husband Balraj, 45, both estate workers – are now among dozens of displaced families sheltering at the Government Polytechnic College in Meppadi. Their home, a paddy-line house belonging to the Meenakshi estate, has been deemed unsafe, sitting too close to the spot where soil excavated from the twin-tunnel project has been dumped.
The couple were on their way to Meppadi when disaster struck. The estate work was suspended due to rains and they had some chores to attend to. "We heard a sound and started running when we realised it was a landslide," Koodammal recalled.
In the chaos, she injured her right wrist. Balraj escaped without visible injury, though he now nurses a persistent pain in his hip from the fall. Between them and the debris stood only luck — the tanker lorry that could have crushed them but came to rest beside them.
On July 7, a minor landslide at the construction site of the Kozhikode-Wayanad twin tunnels in Kalladi of Wayanad’s Meppadi panchayat claimed three lives. Five persons remain missing as search operations entered the second day on July 8. During the landslide, a mound of excavated soil had come crashing downhill.
Koodammal said six houses share her paddy line, and every single family from it has now been moved to the Polytechnic, which has become a makeshift shelter for the evacuated.
Vimala, another estate worker, said three such paddy lines lie near the site, and several families from all of them have been relocated to safety.
For Vimala, the danger feels far from over. "The risk of another landslide is real. If it happens, our houses will be affected. The soil should be removed from the area as soon as possible. We had complained two months ago but the only thing they did was to cover the soil with tarpaulin sheets," she said.
Kannan, who works at a private resort in Meppadi and whose wife is employed at the Meenakshi estate, says his vehicle was damaged in the disaster. "I had bought a Bolero using a bank loan to transport the workers engaged in tunnel work. I have to pay a heavy EMI every month," he said.
According to him, when estate workers first raised complaints about the dumped soil, authorities had assured them that steps would be taken to clear it. But nothing was done.
Koodammal, who moved to Meppadi from Madurai 17 years ago, is wary of moving back to the estate line house. "They should move the soil from the area as soon as possible. How long can we live in fear of landslides that might affect our houses?" she asked.
Following the landslide at the tunnel site, 93 people from 33 families in the surrounding areas have been shifted to the relief camp at Meppadi Polytechnic College. The displaced also include seven tribal families from the Thazhe Aranamala-Mammikkunnu area, a region already known to be vulnerable to landslides.