Landslides, flood affects 16 families in Nandikadu

Sixteen families in and around Nandikadu in Didupe under Malavanthige Gram Panchayat are badly affected by landslide, flood and are in acute distress.

Umesh, one of the victims whose six-bedroom old house had been damaged severely in the landslide, told DH, “A hillock has caved in and has reached the beam of the roof. The removal of soil from the landslide will damage the entire house. About 45% of the house is damaged.”

Umesh said his 74-year-old mother Rukmaniyamma and a bedridden brother, suffering from the spinal cord, sisters-in-law, children have been shifted to a relative’s house.

The 2.5km-long Kotradka-Nandikadu mud road connecting the Nandikadu area is covered with driftwood, boulders and soil, making it difficult for the residents to walk on the road. “As a result, the locals have to carry my brother up to a distance of five kilometres in the forest,” he added.

He said about 23 quintals of dried arecanut, 5,000 coconuts, pumpsets, a lake for supplying water to farmland, a 5 hp pumpset inside the lake and the pump shed are buried under mounds of soil.

The flash flood, which carried boulders and pebbles, has destroyed 800 arecanut trees aged above 15 years, 850 arecanut trees aged above four years, 55 coconut trees and 650 rubber trees. In addition, all the furniture, vessels are also washed away, he poured out his woes.

The arecanut plantations and farmland of other 15 families in the area too are damaged, he said.