A month after escaping landslide, woman delivers baby girl in Puthumala
KALPETTA: Prajeesh Kaappumala’s face lights up when he looks at his baby girl, who was born on September 1, and his wife Akhila (22). Hailing from Mundakai near landslide-hit Puthumala, he shudders even now when he thinks of how he and his family escaped twice.
After narrowly escaping the devastating landslide in Puthumala on August 8, he and his family, comprising his then-pregnant wife and three-year-old son, were taken to a temporary camp in a madrasa at Mundakai.
When the torrential rain failed to subside, they decided to relocate to Akhila’s house in nearby Kashmir.
They were lucky once again as they left the camp in a jeep just when a landslip occurred. “Had we been five minutes late, all of us would have died. However, we managed to escape,” said Prajeesh.
But the team could not reach Kashmir as the entire area was isolated due to mud slips. So, the family was forced to spend the night in the house of a police officer at Elamala, 6 km away from Puthumala.
The following day, Army personnel and other rescue workers partially cleared the road, but the bridge at Puthumala was washed away.
Akhila felt uneasy and believing it was the onset of labour, Prajeesh managed to take her to the clinic in a tea estate at Chooralmala.
But the doctor told him to immediately take her to a hospital in Meppadi. By that time, rescue efforts led by Sub Collector NSK Umesh were in full swing. “It was difficult to carry Akhila through the spot where the bridge had washed away.
Army personnel said it was risky for her to cross the spot where the bridge once stood. But 50 to 60 local volunteers took the risk of putting Akhila on a stretcher, and bringing her safely to the opposite shore,” recalled Umesh.
Akhila was then taken to Kallar in a jeep and from there, shifted to a private hospital at Meppadi in an ambulance.