Debt-ridden shop owner & ward with zero voters: Life in Wayanad towns 100 days after landslide

When Basheer plucked up the courage to reopen his tea shop in the disaster-ravaged Chooralmala, all he had hoped was to move on the best way he could. Three months after two towns were reduced to ruins by a devastating landslide, Basheer is a worried man. He knows he is headed to debt, his reserve funds have shrunken. There was help from many people, he doesn't want to trouble them anymore.

"With my three decades long experience I know that I am running into another trouble as debt is accumulating. I have run out of savings and I cannot always depend on others. My business would be profitable only if I get more than Rs 10,000 in sales daily. Now I am getting Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 per day which is barely sufficient as I have to pay wages for four labourers who help me in the kitchen and to supply food," he said. Before the landslide, Basheer used to have a sales revenue of Rs 20,000 per day.

Basheer had to take another room on a monthly rent of Rs 4000 on the opposite side of the street as his old shop on the river side of the town had been partially washed away.

Once a buzzing township with around 50 shops, Chooralmala now has only two coffee shops. Glum-faced villagers, who had once resided here, walk around the ruins. Abandoned houses, crushed vehicles and remnants of concrete structures lie around Punchirimattam and Mundakkai in Meppadi panchayath. It was in the wee hours of July 31 that the towns were partially wiped out by multiple landslides that left 231 killed and 47 missing.

No outsiders are permitted here without a valid pass issued by the police. Farm labourers and plantation staff are exempted. For farm workers, the number of labourers in each vehicle has to be recorded at the entry check post in the morning and evening. By 3 pm, the workers cross the Bailey bridge at Chooralmala and return home.

According to Manikantan, the postman of Chooralmala, it would be tough to find a person in the area after 3 pm. Delivering letters is tough for him. People who once stayed here are now scattered across other many panchayats and the Kalpetta municipality. First, he has to intimate the person and also fix a meeting point so that they meet in the evening and hand over the letter.

An array of damaged houses and remains of a mosque are all that is left at Mundakkai. No voters of Mundakkai ward reside here anymore. Meppadi panchayath president K Babu who represents Mundakkai said that none of them would come back to the zone as the majority areas are still landslide-prone. They still catch up at Meppadi town though. " I meet them at Meppadi town as most of them who live in rented homes at various parts of the district, travel to the town every day, meet some of the Mundakkai friends, talk together, eat together and return by evening. Though there are offers for single houses from many sponsors, they are not ready to accept it as they want to be together. All of them hope that at least they can live together with the fond memories of Mundakkai," said Babu.