Kalpetta: CK Muhammad Kunhi, a conductor on the KSRTC bus from Kalpetta to Mundakkai, woke up on July 30 to an unfamiliar landscape littered with boulders and debris. "Waterlevel often rises around the place we stay during the rainy season due to the nearby river. When we saw the water, we thought it was just another day of waterlogging. But what greeted us outside was harrowing scenes. The temple on the bus route was washed away. Eighteen families used to live behind the building we stayed. Their houses were nowhere to be seen," Kunhi said.

After witnessing the landslide firsthand, bus driver PB Sajith and conductor Kunhi crossed the Bailey bridge with their vehicle on Sunday, finally reaching Kalpetta after six terrifying days. The KSRTC bus, which plied from Kalpetta to Mundakkai, would usually halt at Chooralmala for the night. During the landslide, the bus was stuck on the other side of the river after the bridge collapsed.

Kunhi, a native of Koduvalli in Kozhikode, has been working as a conductor on the Kalpetta-Mundakkai route for a year. A typical day consists of three trips to Chooralmala and two to Mundakkai. The final trip of the day starts from Kalpetta at 8:30 pm and reaches Chooralmala by 10 pm. The landslide occurred on July 30 at half-an-hour past midnight. The bus reached Chooralmala at 9:45 pm. They normally park the bus in front of the clinic near the Chooralmala temple, and the driver and conductor sleep in a room adjacent to the clinic beyond the bridge that was destroyed by the landslide.

"When I woke up in the morning, there was water on all three sides. At first, I did not understand the extent of the impact. I only thought that the water had seeped in. When I went a little further, I saw a man covered in soil up to his chest. When I went to Mundakkai to find a rope to rescue him, I couldn't find the town," Kunhi recollected painfully.

"The front of the clinic was closed. We had entered the room through the back. When we woke up, the whole area of the toilet was filled with water. There was no electricity. Had the water changed course by another four metres, the building we lived in would have washed away. We crossed the river and reached here by Sunday evening," said driver Sajith.