In the midst of a tragedy of Wayanad’s scale, many heart-warming tales of bravery and humanitarian deeds involving high personal risks have come to light as the jumbo efforts to rescue the survivors, if any, of the catastrophic landslides continued on the fifth day.
In one instance, while the Indian Air Force played Good Samaritan in saving the lives of two youths from Malappuram district who had reached Soojippara in Wayanad district as part of a rescue team, the fire brigade saved a third youth from the inaccessible rocky terrains in the region on Saturday.
The trio had lost their way on Friday while searching for those trapped in Tuesday’s landslides.
They spent the whole night atop the rocky hills as they found it difficult to move in the slippery and slushy area. Two of them suffered minor fractures in the fall and they themselves got trapped in the rocky terrain.
The police and other State agencies found the going tough and the IAF team was summoned to save the youths. While the helicopter piloted by the IAF crew had to do dangerous manoeuvering to air-lift two of the youths from the treacherous terrain, the third one was saved by the fire brigade using specially made coir.
All the three have been hospitalised as they had suffered minor fractures and exhaustion.
In yet another daring rescue operation, officials of the Forest Department saved six members of a family (including four children and their father and mother) who were trapped in a rocky cave atop the Wayanad hills.
The family, having lost their dwelling in Tuesday’s landslide at Mundakkai, had managed to reach the cave and huddled together amid heavy rain.
Officials led by Kalpetta Range Forest Officer K Hashis rescued the tribal family which included four kids aged between one and four. The rescue mission took four and a half hours one way. “The family is from the Paniya community of Wayanad, and had been stranded in a cave atop a hill overlooking a deep gorge,” said Hashis after the family members were brought to a relief camp.
Hashis said they had found the mother and a four-year-old child wandering around to find food for her other children and their father who were stranded in the cave.
The rescue team of the forest officials has shifted most of the members of the tribal communities in Wayanad to safer places.
Hashis said the tribal community survived on forest products and generally avoided interactions with others. “However, it seems like, due to the landslide and the heavy rain, they were unable to procure any food,” he said.
The road to be taken to reach the cave where the tribal survivors were trapped was literally a steep slope, very difficult to traverse, especially amidst heavy rainfall. The officers had to tie ropes to trees and rocks to climb, a very risky exercise indeed as they said.
He added, “The children were tired, and we fed them with whatever we had carried. Later, after much persuasion, their father agreed to come with us, and we tied the children to our bodies and started our trek back.”
