Even as rehabilitation for survivors of the 2024 Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslide in Keralam advances, 13 displaced Adivasi families continue to face delayed resettlement. While 327 families, including 149 last month, have received house allotments at a township project in Kalpetta, rebuilding lives remains out of reach for these indigenous households.
Although their homes were not damaged during the 2024 disaster, the families had to leave after officials designated the surrounding regions as "no-go zones" unsuitable for living. One of the settlements was also marked as a "red zone."
Currently, some affected families live in rented accommodation with financial assistance from the government, though this has separated them from their forest environment and customary livelihoods. Others have chosen to head back into the forest because construction has not yet started on the alternative land allocated to them at Puthiyavillage in Meppadi under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
Among the displaced, one family continues to reside in the forest at Punchirimattam, unwilling to leave its ancestral land. Meanwhile, a few other families have returned to their forest land at Erattukundu.
