‘We were given a second life’

Meppadi: As the deafening roar erupted from the hillside behind them and a towering wall of mud came hurtling down, plantation worker Palraj instinctively grabbed his wife Koodammal’s hand and ran.

Every stride was a desperate race against death. Hours later, seated at the relief camp and watching CCTV footage of their dramatic escape, the couple could scarcely believe they had survived.The footage showed them sprinting to safety moments before a container truck, swept away by the force of the mudslide, came hurtling towards them. But the avalanche of mud and water caught up with them and knocked them to the ground.

“We have been given a second birth,” said Palraj from the relief camp at Meppadi Polytechnic College.Survivors and witnesses of Monday’s tragedy recounted scenes of unimaginable terror as a massive wall of mud and debris thundered down the hillside, swallowing heavy earthmoving machinery, a KSRTC bus, a tanker truck and everything in its path within seconds.Palraj and Koodammal work as labourers at a cardamom plantation in Meenakshi Estate.

Since Tuesday was a holiday, they had walked from their quarters to the bus stop near Meenakshi Bridge to go to Kalpetta and Meppadi for errands. “We were waiting for the bus when I heard a huge sound. When we turned around, we saw the entire hillside collapsing and rushing towards us,” he said.Ashique PC, an employee at Grillax Hotel near the bridge, said he rushed outside on hearing a thunderous roar. “What I saw was unbelievable.

The entire mound of earth, covered with tarpaulin sheets, was moving like a giant wave. It would have fallen over the portacabins where security personnel stayed. Many of those missing and injured had come in the morning for tea at the restaurant. Within seconds it swept away the vehicles.

The torrent of mud and water was several metres high. Had the truck not stopped after hitting the jeep, it would have come inside our hotel,” he said.

Ashique immediately alerted the fire and rescue services and the district administration. Rescue teams reached the spot in 15 minutes.

Maratha, a resident of Mammikkunnu, had just boarded a bus to Chooralmala after returning to Meppadi. As the bus approached the bridge, the driver hit the brakes. “At first, I thought an elephant had wandered onto the road because that often happens here. Then I heard an enormous roar.

When I looked ahead, what I saw took my breath away. The bus was moving slowly. Had it been travelling faster, we too would have been caught in the disaster,” she said with tears in her eyes.

She was among the passengers on KSRTC bus to Chooralmala that reached Kalladi moments before the devastating mudslip.Manikandan of Mecherikkal House, who had come to his cardamom plantation early in the morning, said he stood transfixed as the disaster unfolded before him. “It was impossible to comprehend what I was seeing,” he said. He said residents had repeatedly expressed concern over the manner in which excavated earth had been piled up near the river during the tunnel road construction.