On This Day: One Year Since Wayanad’s Darkest Night
On this day last year, the serene hills of Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Wayanad were ripped apart by a brutal landslide that claimed nearly 300 lives, displaced over 10,000 people, and erased entire settlements overnight.
What began as a heavy monsoon rain on the night of July 29, 2024, ended in one of Kerala’s worst natural disasters in recent memory.
In its aftermath, people across Kerala came together in solidarity, contributing crores of rupees to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund, hoping to help the survivors rebuild their lives, even if life could never be quite the same again.
The state has labelled its rehabilitation initiative as part of the “Rebuild Kerala” mission. But rebuilding, as the survivors know all too well, must go beyond concrete and walls.
Landslides don’t just flatten man-made structures; they erase ecosystems, cultures, and the delicate, lived-in bonds between people and their land.
Today, Mundakkai and Chooralmala no longer exist in any meaningful way. Their topography has changed beyond recognition. Where once families lived, laughed, and worked for generations, now lie boulders, uprooted trees, and a barren earth stripped of topsoil.
The community, once vibrant with cultural exchange and local traditions, has been reduced to scattered survivors struggling to find each other—and themselves, in unfamiliar places.
Those who escaped the disaster were first housed in relief camps. Now, they live in rented accommodations across the district, most of them isolated, haunted by memories and hardship.
The state offered ₹6,000 in monthly rent at that time, a sum that falls far short of real rental costs, especially when factoring in deposits, maintenance, and daily living expenses.
More than money, what survivors crave is connection. Many travel daily from places like Kalpetta to Meppadi, not out of necessity but in search of familiar faces, others who, like them, once belonged to a shared place now wiped off the map.
The loss isn’t just physical. Most of the victims were elderly estate workers whose huts bore the marks of decades of labour. They continued working post-retirement, not by choice but by need.
Now, with their livelihoods gone and their communities fractured, they face not only economic insecurity but also emotional dislocation. Sleeplessness, anxiety, and the weight of grief are common among the displaced.
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The government’s rehabilitation strategy, building township houses on acquired land, has not addressed the deeper needs of the survivors. It has focused on construction, not on the reconstruction of life.
Survivors speak of wanting to live together again, not necessarily in Mundakkai or Chooralmala, but in one place, where community life can be rekindled, where healing can happen collectively.
They have no illusions of returning to their lost lands. But in living side by side, they see the possibility of recovering a fraction of their social world.
Unfortunately, their silence is often misread as acceptance. In truth, it stems from fear that voicing disagreement might mean losing even the little that has been offered.
There has been little to no psychological or social support to help them process the trauma. The survivors don’t need just new houses—they need someone to listen to them with patience and care.
They need socially committed professionals, not just bureaucratic plans. Meetings with officials won’t be enough. Healing requires time, empathy, and dialogue. Yet, none of this has been meaningfully attempted.
April 9, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) chief Panakkad Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal laid the foundation stone for 105 houses for survivors of the 2024 Wayanad landslides.
The housing project, to be completed within eight months, will be developed on an 11-acre plot along the Muttil–Thrikkaipetta road near Meppadi. Each family will receive a 1,000-square-foot house built on eight cents of land, with provisions for future expansion.
The IUML had raised ₹36 crore through crowdfunding following the disaster and received 2.31 acres of land as a donation toward the initiative. The party had earlier disbursed ₹1.4 crore in emergency aid and also promised to facilitate overseas employment for nearly 50 survivors in collaboration with the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre.
Also, read| Muslim League Lays Foundation Stone For 105 Houses For Wayanad Landslide Victims
Earlier, on March 27, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had laid the foundation stone for a government-initiated model township on 64 hectares of land acquired from Elstone Tea Estate near Kalpetta.
The Chief Minister, while inaugurating the project, criticised the Union Government for failing to support the state’s rehabilitation efforts. Although the Centre sanctioned a ₹529-crore interest-free loan to Wayanad in February, it drew criticism due to the stringent repayment conditions attached.
As of June 25, 2025, the Kerala government has spent ₹91.73 crore from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) on rehabilitation efforts.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stated on Tuesday that a total of ₹770.76 crore has been received so far for landslide-related relief, with allocations made for direct financial assistance, rent aid, and land acquisition at the Elston Estate, the site of the ongoing resettlement program.
On Tuesday, relatives gathered at the Puthumala burial ground to clean the graves of those lost. Workers prepared for Wednesday’s memorial service, while officials from ULCCS inspected the faded Bailey bridge over the Punnappuzha—built in just 31 hours during rescue operations—to begin work on a permanent replacement.
