Chooramala(Wayanad): The unusual mooing of his cattle in the middle of the night saved a tea estate labourer and 13 members of his family from the deadly disaster that struck Wayanad on Tuesday.
Rajesh, 37, came out of his house after hearing the constant mooing of the cattle in the adjacent shed. His intention was to comfort the eight cows which had been giving him a steady income for the last few years. As he stepped out, Rajesh saw that the cattle shed was half-inundated.
Living on the banks of Iruvazhinji, a tributary of Chaliyar river, Rajesh was used to the rise in water levels. "There are times when the water reaches our doorsteps. However, the noise made by cows this time was unusual," Rajesh said.
As he freed the cows and drove them out towards the higher grounds, Rajesh heard a series of crackles followed by a loud sound.
"The explosion-like sound convinced me that something was wrong. There was no power throughout the previous day. I rushed inside the house and woke everyone up with an emergency flashlight. We started climbing the hill. I turned around and saw a vehicle with its head lights switched on being washed away," he said.
Apart from his wife Sumitra, seven-year-old son Dakshwad and mother-in-law Mahadevi, 10 relatives, who had arrived from Karnataka for a brief stay, were also in the house. Many of them were sound asleep when Rajesh woke them up. As they joined others and climbed the hill, they could hear the deep rumble of boulders rolling downhill.
"We first saw flashlights floating by. Then there was nothing for a moment. The thud of boulders became loud. We could hear the loud sounds of houses collapsing and getting washed away," he said.
The group was stranded on the hill till Tuesday evening when the Army built a make-shift bridge. Now at the relief camp in Meppadi, the family credits Rajesh for saving their lives. However, Rajesh feels otherwise.
"Had it not been for the cows, it would have been too late for us to save ourselves. I could trace only four of them stranded in a coffee estate uphill. They were scared and ran away from me when I tried to comfort them. I don't know what happened to the remaining ones," he said.