Kerala double tragedy: Landslides in 2019 and 2024 shatter Joseph’s life | Kochi News – Times of India

P Joseph, whose family members were victims of the Puthumala landslide in 2019 and the recent Mundakkai landslide

Two devastating landslides have inflicted unbearable loss upon P Joseph’s family. The 2019 Puthumala disaster was followed by the recent tragedy in Mundakkai, claiming multiple lives.
Joseph, who works at Harrisson’s Malayalam Plantation’s Puthumala division, survived the 2019 Puthumala disaster, though he was injured in the debris flow that also claimed the life of his brother Lawrence’s wife, Shaila.After the landslide destroyed the place where he was living, Joseph and his wife, Shyla RA, relocated to Nellikappu.
However, the specter of landslide tragedies continued to haunt Joseph’s family. The recent Mundakkai landslide took the life of Joseph’s fatherin-law, Madathil Ramaswamy, 68, and his brother-in-law, Vijaya Balan, 47, who was initially reported missing. While Vijaya Balan’s body was later recovered, Ramaswamy’s remains have not been found. His house in Punchirimattam was completely swept away.
“We were recovering from the devastation wrought by one landslide when tragedy struck again in the form of another. In the Puthumala disaster, I got trapped in the debris flow but managed to somehow escape from it but we lost a member of our family. I was also hospitalized following injuries suffered in the landslide. Also, our neighbours Ajitha, Selvan, and Rani had died in the mishap. Now, when the scars of that landslide were beginning to heal, yet another landslide has taken away more of our loved ones,” said Joseph.
Standing outside the temporary morgue at Meppadi panchayat community hall to see if Ramaswamy’s body has been recovered, Joseph said that he had personally joined the search operations as volunteer of Army at Punchirimattom as his wife Shyla was inconsolable.
“My father- in- law had come to our house on Monday morning and left for his house at Punchirimattam only in the evening. Though we asked him to stay back, he went saying that he has to take food to Vijaya Balan,” said Joseph.
Joseph added that though he was injured and the estate in which he was staying was washed away in the Puthumala disaster, all that he had received as compensation was just Rs 17,000.
“Though authorities had promised that houses would be provided, nothing has happened,” Joseph said.