52 faces, two years since Mundakkai-Chooralmala disaster

KALPETTA: Two years after the landslides that devastated Mundakkai and Chooralmala on July 30, 2024, 52 smiling faces remain together on a wall at the District Educational Deputy Director’s office at the Wayanad Civil Station in Kalpetta.
Alongside the photographs is a message that remembers the children not merely as students, but as young lives filled with dreams, curiosity and possibilities that were left unfinished.

The message reads:
“On the morning of July 30, 2024, the landslides in Mundakkai and Chooralmala swallowed not only homes and mountains, but also 52 young lives that were filled with dreams and curiosity. They were not merely students. They were futures waiting to bloom, stories waiting to be told, and joys that we were waiting to see.
“Each photograph is a universe that came to a halt midway. A classroom that lost its voices. A school bag that will never be opened. A laughter that can no longer be heard.
“A child who danced, a student who loved science, a little one who helped her grandmother — their dreams now echo in silence. Though their presence can no longer be seen, it has left a deep imprint on us.
“This wall should not remain merely a memory. Let it also be a promise that we will carry them in our hearts.”

The photographs are of 52 children from Mundakkai Govt. LP School and Vellarmala Govt. Vocational Higher Secondary School who lost their lives in the disaster.
Among them are Ishan, Nived and Dhyan, three children from the same family who were lost in the tragedy.
The photographs were collected by the office of the District Educational Deputy Director from the school registers.
Two years on, the photographs bring together the children who were part of those schools and whose lives ended in the Mundakkai and Chooralmala disaster. The wall serves as a remembrance of the 52 young lives — and as a promise to keep them in the hearts of those who remember them.