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In Kerala's society, known for its high material standard of living, plunging into a state of having nothing overnight can be terrible for one's social standing and sense of self-esteem.
Rehabilitation entails piecing a community back together after a disturbance and while its aim is noble, the act of reassembling will bring alive disparities and inequalities, explains Shyam G Menon.
While all eyes stay focused on the rehabilitation package for the survivors of Wayanad's 2024 landslide, there is the need not to ignore challenges to livelihood in the present.
The whole journey to rehabilitation must be carefully managed because as a psychiatrist in Kalpetta pointed out, the honeymoon phase in society's social support for the survivors may have run its course.
Right now, and the months to come, could be when reality hits them most.
In early November 2024, when I visited the settlements beyond the Bailey bridge at Chooralmala, all of them affected by Wayanad's devastating landslide of July that year, it had been a picture of quietness.
Like they say of the lull before a storm, this was the lull after a tragedy.
There were many abandoned, damaged, mud-stained houses, and the sole movement of people left was that of estate workers and the occasional vehicle driving in to take them back after work hours.
In the distance, the giant scar on Vellarimala, from where the landslide commenced, maintained its brooding presence.
On February 12, 2025, onmanorama.com reported that these abandoned settlements and even parts of Chooralmala had begun seeing encroachment by wild animals.
'Wild elephants are wandering in the Chooralmala and Attamala areas, even in broad daylight. At the school grounds in Mundakkai, where children used to play, fresh elephant dung can now frequently be seen,' the report said.
The Attamala area was spared damage in the landslide, but many of its residents were shifted while the tribal population elected to stay back and continue working in the nearby estates.
'Just the other day, Balan, a member of this community, lost his life after being trampled by a wild elephant,' the report said.
Meanwhile, the erstwhile residents of the abandoned locations -- the survivors of the landslide of July 2024 -- have been enduring their own struggle to live, elsewhere.
Rehabilitation yes, but life right now is as important
Subair was looking for sponsors who may help him with working capital.
"Please tell those you know," he told me. It was March 12, 2025. We were at a cafe in Kalpetta. Subair lost his two sons and father in the 2024 landslide in Wayanad.
He used to live in Chooralmala, near the local school. He had a house on ten cents of land. Nothing remains.
He got the relief promised by the Centre for his father and one son (the latter identified through DNA test of a body part, which was all that remained).
The relief for the second son could not be claimed because the body stayed untraceable.
Subair has been struggling since to get his life back on track and restart the textile shop, he once managed.
He has taken new premises near Kalpetta and acquired some stock. But he is short on working capital.
It was a similar story with Jijeesh. He ran a steel fabrication business in Chooralmala. When his business spiralled down during the COVID-19 pandemic, he shifted his stock and machinery to his house in Punjirimattom.
His house and 49 cents of land -- all got washed away. His younger brother died. Jijeesh too is struggling to start life afresh.
These are cases of people capable of work, finding it tough to get working capital to keep their renewed attempt at livelihood, alive.
Loans usually require collateral. Whatever physical assets they could mortgage, are gone.
"Banks will not give us loans," Naseer Alakkal, chairman of Janashabdam, one of the groups representing the survivors, said.
The same was heard from a few others protesting before the civil station in Kalpetta on March 13.
It brings us to a puzzling part of the story. There is an estimated Rs 30 crore to Rs 32 crore on the books of banks, which is the cumulative debt outstanding in the name of the survivors.
There were posters seeking write-off of this debt visible in Chooralmala at the time of the last Lok Sabha by-polls, subsequently won by the current member of Parliament from Wayanad, Priyanka Gandhi.
Except for four crore rupees written off by Kerala Bank, the remaining amount remains. Debt write-off continues to be a demand with the survivors of the 2024 landslide.
According to a senior bank official who requested not to be named, the challenge banks face is that they cannot make a repeatable example of such write-offs because for every okay given to write-off in Wayanad there will be similar cases of calamity asking for write-off elsewhere in India.
Debt write-off requires board approval. For that, the boards of scheduled banks must meet.
Kerala Bank could do that, the official explained, because the bank is wholly in Kerala; its board is in the state.
Writing off the remaining debt, he felt, may receive momentum if the state puts its weight behind the request.
It could be in the form of a token repayment by the state with the rest being written off by the bank boards or it could be in the form of the state deputing representatives to specifically chase down the objective.
The latter -- that bit of someone being detailed to realise the objective -- counts because in the larger backdrop of Indian banking, Rs 30 crore to Rs 32 crore is peanuts.
Meanwhile, it is understood that another Kerala based-scheduled bank is willing to write off its share of the debt but wants a firm list of the eligible on hand.
It brings us back to the list and the importance of nobody -- survivors, political parties and vested interests -- meddling with it.
"Without a clear list, nothing can be done," the bank official said.
At the protest venue, at least one protestor admitted that in their initial desperation, there had been instances of multiple claims to relief and rehabilitation raised from the same family.
"I know, the list required being perfected," he said.
It is a message all those concerned with the rehabilitation process in Wayanad must understand -- do not meddle with the list for to do so, is to hurt many people.
Hold the government accountable for efficiency and quality of execution but allow it the official process to decide eligibility, priority and justice.
As for the survivors' continued eligibility to take loans, the bank official said that technically, if an individual has not paid his/her loan instalments in the period since the tragedy or earlier, he/she risks becoming a defaulter in the eyes of the operating system that banks use.
Once the stamp of a defaulter sets in, availing loans afresh will be difficult.
Compared to this, lack of collateral is less of an issue.
Collateral matters for banking products like agricultural loans and housing loans.
"They will not get loans for agricultural purposes in their current condition," he said.
However, they should face less issues availing entrepreneurial loans of the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sort, he said, adding, banks may be willing to consider it on humanitarian grounds.
What the doctor said -- perhaps the most important aspect for the government to note
My final stop in Kalpetta was a doctor's consultation room.
A psychiatrist, Dr Jostin Francis, said he had interacted with survivors from the 2024 landslide, seeking help to tackle their mental state.
His experience in this regard and the concerns he developed pushed him to say yes when a YouTube channel asked him to speak about it.
In the video (available on YouTube), he can be heard speaking of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
According to him, the economic profile of the affected population would be that of a middle-class group.
Some families were totally wiped out. There are families with few survivors.
There are those who fled into the forest when the landslide commenced and upon return, found all their belongings gone.
Then, there are those who were in the neighbourhood of the landslide's path, who escaped with their houses intact, but had their minds scarred by the suffering all around.
All of them saw the change to human lives, happen suddenly.
In Kerala's society, known for its high material standard of living, plunging into a state of having nothing overnight can be terrible for one's social standing and sense of self-esteem. One feels insignificant.
Eligibility for marriage drops if one hails from such circumstances. This was seen in earlier cases of calamity too.
By nature, calamities like Wayanad's landslide are like a tsunami.
There is a distinct before and after in community life with the before being a case of social equilibrium reached over a long period of time.
Rehabilitation entails piecing a community back together after a disturbance and while its aim is noble, the act of reassembling will bring alive disparities and inequalities.
For example, some may find strong sponsors; some may not.
When sponsors get identified with religion and community, divides emerge where there was none previously.
Dr Francis listed a set of propensities; he told me that actual cases matching these propensities existed among the survivors of the 2024 tragedy.
To begin with, he said, the vulnerability to develop mental issues exists in most of us.
Calamities like the 2024 landslide generate psycho-social stress capable of triggering the vulnerability.
Many of those affected may be coping with mood disorders, the dominant form of which is depression.
There is also the propensity for bipolar disorder and substance abuse, particularly alcoholism.
Some develop pathological grief, which is extreme grief.
In some cases, there will be PTSD, which involves flashback.
These tendencies have been noticed in not just those immediately affected by the calamity but also their dependants and relatives who may be physically away from the scene but are nevertheless connected.
Another source of anguish has been the repeated media coverage and its impact.
"It affects people who are physically unaffected by these incidents too," Dr Francis said.
There have been cases of those who helped in the rescue process, enduring PTSD later.
There has also been the case of inexperienced counsellors attaching relief to repeated ventilation of trauma when what it did, was to reinforce the incident in memory.
I asked Dr Francis how effective or not the Kerala context is, to tackle such issues.
He felt that compared to other states, Kerala appeared better placed to handle it.
But there is a major problem, and it is one all those associated with the rehabilitation process should keep in mind for a proper comprehension of its urgency.
After big calamities and tragic developments, there is usually a honeymoon phase when relatives and friends rush to the support of the affected, cluster around them and provide them a sense of community.
It is in this phase that sponsors also come in with huge promises and gifts.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon phase does not last long.
In due course, the survivors are on their own. Dr Francis reckons that by now, for the survivors of the 2024 landslide, the honeymoon phase may have concluded and many of them could be on their own.
This is when existence hits home. After leaving Wayanad, I spoke to Dr Joice Geo, honorary general secretary of the Kerala chapter of the Indian Psychiatric Society, for a sense of how prominent trauma related counselling had become in Kerala given natural calamities had been several in the past decade.
She said that as with the Wayanad landslide in 2024, the pandemic years and the floods of 2018 had left their share of people disturbed directly by the specific incident and indirectly by its multiple fallouts.
In some cases, engagements by psychiatrists and counsellors are continuing.
Looking ahead, she agreed that given climate change and likelihood of unsteady weather conditions, it is time sensitization programs from a mental health perspective was done by way of preparation.
"The positive side is that the level of resilience we have seen in Kerala is good," she said.
Listen, talk, listen...
March 15, Thiruvananthapuram. Early morning, I spoke to Naseer to find out if the protesters managed to meet the state revenue minister, as planned two days earlier in Kalpetta.
"Yes, we got to meet him. We spoke to him for one-and-a-half hours. He heard us out but there are some points on their side, which they stick to. We told him, we want 10 cents of land and not seven. He said he will inform the chief minister of our demand. The final decision has to be taken by the chief minister," Naseer said.
The inconvenience caused by case-by-case approval required for the first 12 years, to leverage the awarded land and house for getting bank loans, was also conveyed to the minister, he said.
On March 15, there was an update from district collector, Meghashree, as well.
"2A has been finalised and 87 beneficiaries are there," she said referring to the second of the three categories in the list of people for rehabilitation.
Shyam G Menon is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com