More than 1000 voters missing from landslide-hit Meppadi Panchayat, many migrated to TN, Karnataka

Wayanad: Meppadi Panchayat in Wayanad district is facing a rare but serious situation where more than 1000 voters have moved out and some scattered to different places following the 2024 landslides that took more than 400 lives.

This has led to a daunting task for the candidates contesting in the local body elections in Ward 11 of the Meppadi Panchayat who are now scrambling to trace voters who have scattered to different locations in the aftermath of the devastating landslides in Mundakkai and Chooralmala.

"Many voters had to move from here due to unavoidable situations following the landslides that destroyed some of their entire families last year. Many lives changed and now they are struggling to find their names in the voter list”, said Jacob Kurien, a local vendor who had faced the wrath of the 2024 landslides in Wayanad.

Those who survived the tragedy have been relocated to different parts of the region, some beyond the panchayat, the district and even the state borders. Several of the voters here now live in Cherambadi, Tamil Nadu, about 33 km away, while some from Chooralmala are currently living nearly 154 km from their native village, in rented houses at Mundoor in Palakkad.

Survivors have also settled in different parts of Wayanad, including Pulappally, 54 km away, and Mananthavady, 52 km from the affected sites.

Mundakkai and Chooralmala, both part of Ward 11 of the Meppadi Panchayat, together account for 2,336 voters across two booths. Of these, more than 1,000 voters are now living outside the ward limits. Of the 980 families that once lived in Chooralmala, only about 270 remain.

During the ward delimitation process after the tragedy, the two affected wards were merged to form a new ward named Mundakkai–Chooralmala.

Similarly, the neighbouring Attamala ward (Ward 10) too has lost almost all of its human habitation. Although the voters’ list records 825 eligible voters, only a handful of families living near the Chooralmala hill remain in the ward.

During the Lok Sabha elections last year, KSRTC operated special bus services to bring displaced Chooralmala voters to the polling booths in Meppadi. Political coalitions had also arranged vehicles to facilitate voting. Similar efforts are being planned this time as well, with parties attempting to bring in the maximum number of voters. In the previous local body elections, the UDF had won the Mundakkai, Chooralmala and Attamala wards.