Swimming against the tide

KOCHI: A furious, dusty gale swept through the Mavelikara-Kozhencherry road and Abraham Mathew tightened his face mask and muttered: “It is all gone. What is left is just waste that not even the raddiwalla will take.’’

The ugly metamorphosis of Aranmula from a lush green valley dotted with leafy houses and manicured gardens to a dusty, grey ghost town happened in matter of three days after the shutters of Kakki dam was opened, causing unprecedented floods on the banks of River Pamba.

Water rose to the height of 15ft, submerging houses, shops, schools, police outposts and dance schools. Nature which gave everything in plenty to a heritage village seems to have taken back everything without even a slight warning.

People walked through the muck wearing masks. There was unbearable stench of waste lying scattered everywhere as shopkeepers and residents tried to wipe off the slush that had washed in.

Shopkeepers had no time to shift their stock and what remains is a muddy picture

Power is yet to be restored in many areas and there is no provision of drinking water as wells have all been filled with slush. The 5km state highway that passes through Aranmula and its gullies turned into rivers. The busy Ikkara Junction, where there are 40 shops, got submerged with six to seven hours.

“I lost all my stocks,” said Yesudas, owner of Biju Textiles.

For Kalamadalam Sridevi, who has been running a 32-year-old dance and music school close to Parthasarathy Temple, the loss was hard to bear. “Many musical instruments like drums got submerged and we moved upstairs. But then we got stuck there for four days. The food was getting depleted day by day,” she said.

The

wetland

, which was the site for the proposed Aranmula airport project, mitigated the effect of flood by acting as a natural

reservoir

Residents here have one question to the authorities: Why were they not alerted about this possible deluge at least a day earlier? “We would have been able to take our belongings out. Today we have nothing left in our house,” said Hari S, whose single-storey house got submerged.

For many, Parthasarathy Temple became a refuge when the water started rising. The temple has been constructed at the highest point along the bank. Interestingly, there is a marker on the steps which shows how much water Aranmula can accommodate during rains. “If the water rises above that, we know it is a warning sign and this was engraved during the floods of 1924. But this time it went way beyond that height,” Hari said.

Meanwhile, there are a fortunate few like Shivankutty, who runs a small shack selling artificial jewellery near the temple. “I ran into the temple with all my belongings. I realized there were 900 people from different religions, caste and class inside the temple premises. It had become a relief camp. We stayed there for four days as the water rose up to 25ft here. We had ‘padachoru’ (rice offered to the deity as part of ritual) and shared whatever we had,” he said.