The devastating landslides that wiped out two villages show that climate change is here to stay and the need for adaptation is clear and present. “This was Mundakkai,” murmurs a rescue volunteer, pointing towards his right. From where we stand, atop a destroyed house, the view is frightening.
A huge expanse of land lies in front of a tall mountain, the earth raw and wounded, like a vast, long scar. The soil is a muddy palette—ochre, russet, and umber mashed up by nature’s rough hand. The terrain is chaos itself—churned and pitted, studded with rocks torn from sleep.
Ripped open, the land’s guts spilling over for all to see, and a newly enlarged river gleaming like fresh gashes as a bunch of excavators claw deep, leaving grooves and furrows that snake across the site. This is Mundakkai, a small, serene village in Kerala’s Wayanad district that, along with the nearby villages of Punjirimattom, Chooralmala, and Attamala, was ravaged by three consecutive landslides in the wee hours of July 30, 2024. Heavy rains triggered the landslides whose source was later discovered to be at Punjirimattam.
In the 48 hours leading up to the morning of July 30, the Mundakkai region saw a staggering 572 mm of rainfall. Hillsides collapsed as a result, sending a torrent of mud, water, and boulders crashing down. The debris flowed into the affected areas below the mountains, which lay as much as 5-6 km away from the source of the landslide.
At least 250 people died in the natural cala.