‘There is not a soul left’: At landslide Ground Zero in Wayanad, massive rescue ops on

But it’s Mundakkai, a village in the lap of the Western Ghats that posed the biggest challenge to the rescuers. Once dotted with resorts, homestays and coffee plantations, the entire village, part of the Meppadi panchayat, had been turned inside out as the torrent of mud and water washed away everything in its path — hundreds of houses, a mosque, a post office, a resort and several buildings.

With a bridge across the Iruvazhanji river washed away, for several hours after the tragedy, the village remained cut off from Chooralmala junction, 2 km away. It was only by Tuesday evening that a 30-member NDRF team reached the village. The rescue attempts began on Wednesday, when 100-odd members from the state Fire and Rescue department, along with a 55-member scuba diving team from Kochi, and Army and NDRF personnel managed to access the village and started retrieving bodies — on Wednesday, the team found 10 bodies. Army personnel used a rope and formed a human chain as they stood waist deep in the swirling waters of the Iruvazhanji river to rescue the stranded survivors in Mundakkai.

Mundakkai panchayat member K Babu said, “The village had a population of around 1,200. There is not a soul left there now. We have taken out all those who survived the tragedy,’’ he said, adding that Mundakkai had 540 houses, which included quarters of the coffee estate workers. Less than 50 of those stand now.

Babu, who lives in Kottanad village in Meppadi and was among the first to reach Mundakkai village after the landslide, said, “Many people are still missing, so we can’t say how many from Mundakkai died. Several bodies were likely washed away in the landslide. The panchayat has told ASHA workers to visit relief camps and get details of those from Mundakkai who survived,” he said.

By Wednesday noon, the rescue team managed to take an earth mover across the Iruvazhanji river to Mundakkai. The machine, which was lowered into the river, shifted huge boulders in its path to get to the other side.

Official sources said that a temporary, narrow walkway erected over the river got submerged due to the heavy rains on Wednesday. By 6 pm, the rescue workers made an adventurous return from Mundakkai using the same walkway and hauling themselves across with ropes.

A team from the Army’s Madras Engineer Group will install a Bailey bridge by Thursday evening to further ease the movement of rescue workers and relief material. The equipment to set up the 190-foot bridge was flown in from Delhi to Kannur airport on Wednesday, and brought to Wayanad in 17 trucks.