Around 1 pm on Saturday, August 3, an ambulance rolled into the Community Health Centre (CHC) in landslide-ravaged Wayanad’s Meppadi. As volunteers gathered around it unhurriedly, a man in the passenger seat told the policemen nearby, “It’s some body parts recovered from below Punchirivattom.” A few persons looking for relatives missing from other places hit by the landslide returned to their seats when they heard the location. The body parts were numbered and taken into a hall for washing.
The scene was starkly different from what an ambulance’s arrival looked like in the days immediately after the landslide. Witnesses said that crowds would throng the hospital premises in the hope of finding a loved one’s body among the scores of dead bodies being brought in.
But as search and rescue operations entered the fifth day, the number of bodies being recovered have drastically reduced. Until afternoon on Saturday, only one body and some body parts had been recovered in Mundakkai and Chooralmala towns, which saw some of the worst devastation due to the landslide. This despite the fact that government data says around 200 people are still missing.
The numb wait for closure
The buzz of activity in the CHC had reduced, and a numbness had descended on everyone, including the staff and the scores of persons waiting for the bodies of their parents, children, siblings, or friends.
The tragedy has taken a heavy mental toll on those left behind. Every story you hear is more tragic than the other, yet they are now narrated matter-of-factly, all traces of emotion erased by the cruel wait for closure. Among those at the CHC on Saturday were two men who had lost 11 and nine family members each, including their daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren. When TNM spoke to them, they listed out the missing persons, their tones almost mechanical.
“For how much longer will we wail and cry? We did mourn loudly in the beginning, but by now we’ve all grown numb,” said Sharafuddeen (45) who lost around 30 relatives, including his mother, sisters, their husbands and children, sister-in-law, and uncles and their families. While the bodies of two of his sisters and their families have been found and buried, his mother and sister-in-law are yet to be found.
Health Department prioritises mental trauma
Acknowledging the individual and collective mental trauma that the landslides have left on the survivors, the Kerala Health Department has initiated psychological assistance.
Minister Veena George told TNM that the Department has prioritised addressing mental trauma among survivors. To this end, 160 counsellors have been deployed in the affected areas to support survivors living in relief camps as well as those at homes. “We have formed a long-term plan spanning at least a year, which has been developed by expert mental health professionals,” she said.
The counselling service at the camps will be available round-the-clock.
“Different individuals react to the same traumatic incident differently, so they will be extended individual support. The Health Department has decided to accompany the survivors on their path to recovery for at least a year,” she said.
“Currently, we have assigned counsellors in camps. They are all trained professionals and qualified as per the guidelines of the Health and Women and Child departments,” the Minister said.
She explained that mental health support is being extended at three levels now. “Primarily, counsellors have been asked to be with the survivors in relief camps, lend a ear if survivors wish to talk, give them assurance and confidence. The second level of help is individual counselling for those who need more than the primary assistance. At the third level, survivors will be given clinical support. For instance, there was someone who had not slept a wink for around 48 hours, who was given clinical support on Saturday,” Minister Veena said.
She added that the counselling help that each survivor receives will be documented, and it will be ensured that the same counsellor is assigned the case so that survivors are not forced to recount the traumatic incident over and over again.
Psychosocial first aid
Jibin, the coordinator of the counselling efforts at the relief camp in the Meppadi Government Higher Secondary School, told TNM that they are currently undertaking only psychosocial first aid (PFA) for the survivors. “It is not possible to give individual counselling to survivors at this point. So we are focusing on sitting with them, and listening to those wishing to talk.”
Psychosocial first aid is a non-intrusive method that emphasises practical care and support for individuals who have experienced a crisis situation. It involves need-based assistance, which entails assessing the needs and concerns of survivors and helping with basic needs such as a safe space, food, clothing, etc. It emphasises providing emotional support and a humane presence, and does not involve counselling or psychotherapy.
A counsellor involved in the process told TNM, “What the survivors are showing is just the reaction to an unusual and traumatic situation. So our approach is to help them adapt to and accommodate that reaction, and we refrain from exaggerated or invalidating responses.”
Grief camps
Many of the child survivors of the landslide have reported sleeplessness, according to Dr Ashik, who was in charge of the medical team at the relief camp in the Meppadi Government Higher Secondary School for three days since August 1. In fact, he said that almost 80% of camp residents have suffered mental trauma, irrespective of age. He said that the medical team has not yet prescribed any medicines for symptoms like sleeplessness.
“Sleeplessness is very common among all the survivors and we are addressing it. In some cases, the sleeplessness may not be a reaction to the traumatic incident, but a response to the conditions of the camps itself. There are multiple people living there and however many facilities are provided, a camp can never compensate for the loss of the home atmosphere. That too could impact their sleep,” the counsellor told TNM.
“The adults are anxious for what lies ahead. They lost every item they possessed in one go. Most of them are from lower middle class backgrounds, whose houses held the worth of a lifetime of hard work. The government will compensate them for the loss of the house, but imagine what all additional possessions such as vehicles and gold they must have lost. Going back to their earlier lives will be difficult for many of them and that thought constantly fills their hearts. Even if they come to the doctors for a fever, they speak of the immense loss they faced in the wake of the tragedy,” Ashik said.
For survivors, adding to the shock of the tragedy and the anxiety induced by the loss of belongings and uncertainty of the future, is tremendous grief. There are very few people who haven’t lost a friend or dear one. Everyone grieved differently, yet there also was the collective grief over a tragedy endured by the community as a whole.
Tea estate worker Sandayee (48) and her sister Kavitha (34) spoke to TNM during tea time at the camp on Saturday evening. “I lost my youngest son Rohith (9) while my sister lost her daughter Darshini (19) and husband Duraisami,” Kavitha said. There was no trace of emotion in her voice as she fished out her phone to show the wallpaper – a photo of her holding Rohith.
Unlike her, Sandayee teared up everytime she spoke to someone. Over the phone, she spoke about her loss to other relatives, her voice eventually breaking and tears rolling down her cheeks.
“My daughter was also built more or less like you. She had just done a course in laboratory tech and would tell me that she would go to a lot of places – Kozhikode, Kannur, Ernakulam, her list would go on. She was a cheerful, confident girl, big on dressing up and makeup. She had a whole life ahead of her,” Sandayee said.
When a person nearby attempted to console her saying, “We are all here for you. Look at how the whole of Kerala has come together to help Wayanad,” Sandayee replied, “Yes that is true, but don’t we all live for and with our families? Your family for you, mine for me.”
Dr Ashik said that the true mental toll of the tragedy will emerge only after the survivors leave the camps. “Here, they are surrounded by fellow survivors, volunteers, and others in the camps. That wouldn’t be the case after they leave,” he said, adding that it will not be possible to detect long-term mental health effects of the tragedy at this point.
“It will take them a minimum time to adapt to the traumatic event. In fact, it will take that minimum time for them to even go into symptomatology. So our focus now is to be there for them during that initial time,” the counsellor said.
Body identification gets difficult with each passing day
It is not just in camps that you find traumatised survivors. There are many, like Sharafuddeen, who have been shuttling between the Community Hall outside the CHC and the MSA Auditorium in Meppadi, which have been converted into makeshift mortuaries, for over five days now.
When TNM met Nagarajan from Kalpetta, he was seated at the bus stop outside the CHC with his hands on his forehead. He lost eight members of his family, including his sister, in the landslide. “We need to find my brother’s daughter Sabitha’s body now. Every day I come here and wait,” he said.
“By the second or third day, recovered bodies were often dismembered and decomposed, making identification difficult,” a doctor who is part of the team conducting the post-mortems told TNM.
Many of the waiting relatives spoke of the mental toll the identification of bodies takes on them. “We have to look at body after body, at what doesn’t even look like human remains. We peer down at them after wiping off the fog that has formed on the glass cover of the freezers. Some have maggots on them,” said 35-year-old Shabab, Sharafuddeen’s nephew.
“We cry when we look at each deformed body, but not a single tear falls from our eyes. Our tears have dried up and our minds have grown numb,” he said.
“For now, I just want to find my mother and sister-in-law’s bodies, or at least some body part, and bury them. I want the DNA matching to be done at the earliest, so that I can finally stop searching,” Sharafuddeen said.
On August 3, Minister Veena issued a statement that said, “The Health Department has drawn up standards to prepare survivors, especially disaster victims, for DNA testing. These standards aim to prepare those who are experiencing the severity of the disaster and worry about their loved ones mentally, and to stand with their hearts and understand very gently what the test is and what its significance is.”
“Identifying the body, at least through DNA testing, will help us find some closure. Otherwise we cling on to that tiny bit of hope that maybe they are alive somewhere,” Shabab said.
Both Shabab and Sharafuddeen, who escaped the landslide as their houses are in other parts of Wayanad, said that sleep has evaded them ever since the tragedy struck. “When we lie down, we’re unable to sleep, we just lay awake with our eyes open. So instead of trying to sleep, we all just sit around and talk about the tragedy. As adults who weren’t even present when the landslide swept away the towns, if this is how we’re affected, does one even need to mention how children are affected?” Shabab said.
The government has decided to reach out to those like Sharafuddeen, Shabab, and Nagarajan through house visits.
Minister Veena told TNM that those outside Meppadi have also been affected by the disaster. “Those who lost their friends and relatives or fiances in the landslide are also suffering mental trauma. They can avail help through the Tele MANAS toll free number. In addition to that, the Health Department will soon undertake house visits or surveys in the whole of Vythiri taluk,” she said.
She added that ASHA workers and the panchayat are helping the Health Department in identifying survivors still living in their homes or in the homes of relatives who need mental health support. “Only counsellors carrying the ID card given by the Health Department are authorised to give psychological assistance to these survivors,” she said.
“We have also decided to organise sessions focussed on children. Even if they are not direct victims, the destruction of their schools and other issues have impacted a large number of children. Counsellors will talk to each child in the presence of their parents, either online or at their homes. We are looking to rope in more professionals for this, but only qualified persons will be brought on board,” the Minister said.
The Tele MANAS toll free number is 14416.