'Locals warned, authorities ignored'; What happened on Sunday night in Mundakkai?

MEPPADI: The disastrous landslide in Mundakkai took place during the wee hours of last Monday night. On Saturday night itself, locals presaged danger seeing the rising water level in the adjoining river. Some alarmed locals informed government officials about their worry while some others dialed journalists to give the update. The sheer effort from the locals was dismissed by authorities as they warned the people to not spread baseless and illogical assumptions of any impending danger.

Prashanthan, a native of Mundakkai, was one of the first local natives to raise suspicion about the danger last Saturday. However, the authorities didn’t buy his claim and scoffed him off. And now, just one week after the total nightmarish happenings in Wayanad, Prasanthan stands vindicated. However, he had to pay the price for the inept work of the authorities. Prasanthan lost his mother and sister to the landslides and fumingly, he put all the blame on the officials for not even caring to issue an official notification, that would have alerted locales to move away from their houses to relief camps.

In the previous years, the officials worked adeptly to alert locales which proved effective with no causalities getting reported during heavy monsoon season. Prasanthan's house was destroyed in the Mundakkai landslide in 2020 and now he wants to take the officials involved to task.

Nooruddin, a member of the 12th ward, which includes School Road, where the most number of houses were destroyed, had personally warned the people about the impending disaster. On Monday night, Nooruddin warned the people of his ward to leave their house for relief camps near the school and sternly advised residents near the river to immediately relocate.

Many people were laggard to move away since it was night and many considered Nooruddin's doubts for a false alarm as they believed that the government would have warned them in case of any impending danger.