“Paddy fields have disappeared, there is a flat land devoid of trees for nearly 2 km, we cannot identify the spots we were so familiar with, and roads have simply vanished for long stretches. A few houses have survived.”

This is what one batch of 12 survivors from Makkandur in Kodagu district had to say on Tuesday as they retraced the steps to what was once their home. For them, the weary trudge was as excruciating as the ordeal of landslips and floods they had faced on Friday.

The walk to Makkandur from their relief camps near Madikeri took them almost half a day; normally, it would have taken a few minutes by car.

“The road to Makkandur no longer exists. For every few steps that we took forward and climbed what was once a familiar terrain, we were forced to turn round and rework our route,” said Jagdeep, a coffee plantation owner who was among the first batch of residents to be evacuated when disaster hit the village.

Along with a few others, he set out to assess the damage on Tuesday and returned shocked by the trail of destruction.

The group was greeted by yawning gaps in the road that had deep crevices, to circumvent which they had to climb adjoining hills that were still slippery and wet. Meanwhile, there was no let-up in the slush sliding down the hillocks.

Every step the group took was dangerous. They walked, stunned to find out that farms and plantations had given way to vast puddles of slush. “The adjoining government land which had 120 to 150 houses, accommodating plantation workers, have completely disappeared,” said a sombre Mr. Jagdeep.

Though a few houses have survived, they are surrounded by hillocks that no longer appeared stable. The walk back from Makkandur to their relief camp was even more treacherous. “Our mind was numb as we were convinced that the village we knew no longer existed; reconstruction was a long haul ahead.”

With the rains having ebbed a little, more and more people staying in relief camps are embarking on journeys to ascertain first-hand the damage to their villages.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent The Hindu / August 22nd, 2022