Kalpetta: Hundreds of labourers, including migrant workers from West Bengal and Assam, who were employed in the vast tea, coffee and cardamom plantations in the landslide-hit Mundakkai area are feared missing.

With roads and bridges washed away, district authorities and the plantation company officials have so far failed to reach out to them.

According to Harrisons Malayalam Plantation Ltd (HML) general manager Benil John, the company employed 600 labourers in the tea plantations in the area including migrant labourers from West Bengal and Assam. "But we are yet to contact them as mobile phone networks have collapsed," he said.

According to residents, four line houses, home to 65 families, were washed away in the calamity.

So far, five bodies of company staffers were recovered by the rescue team. Harrisons Malayalam Ltd general manager (tourism and allied business activities) Sunil John said bodies of the company's field officer Girish and his wife and three workers were retrieved by the rescue team. Nine employees' quarters of Sentinel Rock estate under the HML group have been washed away, he confirmed.

A staffer Jishnu, Girish's son and other family members are still missing. Thirty-five workers and their families are also missing, Sunil said. In the 2019 tragedy at Puthumala near Mundakkai, a portion of the Sentinel Rock estate of the HML group, was washed away in the landslide. 

According to Shaji, a resident of Mundakkai, many people are still trapped in the mud accumulated on the river banks. "It was just an 8-metre wide stream, which now runs through a vast area," he said.

Warning signals neglected
Many who spoke to Onmanorama said that people who disregarded the weather warning suffered the most. Those who shifted to camps escaped, they pointed out.

The district administration and local bodies had warned people of an imminent disaster earlier. But most people, especially those in the villages, ignored the warnings.

According to Meppadi panchayat president K Babu, many families living in the risk-prone areas were shifted to rescue camps a day in advance, but those with well-built concrete houses refused to move out. "But none of them expected that the entire area would be washed away in the landslides. The real count casualties would be available only after we reach there save survivors at Mundakkai," he said.

An official, who is coordinating the rescue mission, said a vast area has been washed away and many families are missing. "The first batch of the rescue team arrived at the spot only by noon and survivors will be airlifted to the temporary health camp St Mary's College, Sulthan Bathery from where they would be shifted to hospitals," he said.