Wayanad landslide: Woman, grandchild survive night nestled beneath wild elephant’s feet

Meppadi:“We are coming from a great tragedy, don’t do anything to us. We are afraid. There is no light and water is all around. We somehow came swimming. Don’t do anything to us...” Sujatha cried out to the elephant who stood in front of her as they sought refuge from the landslide in a coffee plantation.

“Then, his eyes seemed to tear up. My granddaughter and I sat at his feet, and he stood there, motionless, until dawn. Two other wild elephants also stood nearby.”

Sujatha is still reeling from that night of the landslide when everything collapsed. “I don’t know which God saved me,” she said.

Her face and words revealed the terror of the night when she escaped from the collapsing house, holding on to her grandchild.

"The water was like the sea. Trees were floating by. When I looked outside, my neighbour's two-story house was collapsing. It fell and destroyed our house. I heard my granddaughter, Mridula, crying as I was trying to get out. I grabbed hold of her little finger, covered her with a cloth, and began swimming through the flooding water.”

Her son Gigeesh, his wife Sujitha, and her grandson Suraj were in another house nearby. Gigeesh dragged them one by one through the water. Sujitha's back and Suraj's chest were badly injured. When they finally reached the shore and moved through the coffee plantation, the elephant appeared in their path.

"I cried for help while swimming, but no one could hear me. Instead, all I heard were screams from every direction. The others lay in the coffee plantation, while my granddaughter and I huddled beneath the feet of the elephant. The situation continued until dawn. There was no one left in the town to come to our rescue. Eventually, someone from outside came and took us to a house, where we were given clothes to wear.”

Sujatha and Mridula arrived at the camp wearing those clothes. The rest of the family is at the hospital.

“There were three families nearby, and I saw all their houses collapse. There is no one left that we know. It still feels like the water is coming.”