Wayanad | A double-storied school building, which once stood along the riverbank against a picturesque landscape in Vellarmala near Meppadi, now lies in ruins.
Its playground, once filled with the laughter of children, now bears a cloak of silence.
The wreckage of the school was among the first visuals that came out of the Mundakkai region, which was hit by a catastrophic landslide on July 30.
The whole neighbourhood where the school stood was smashed by raging boulders and got buried under a massive slush.
According to the state government, 49 children from the region are missing. Some of them studied at Vellarmala GVHSS.
The school authority is yet to find out the exact number of its students missing.
Headmaster Unnikrishnan, who had been working at the school for the past 18 years, was inconsolable.
"My colleagues are not allowing me to go to school. We were not a typical school. We used to celebrate each and every commemorative day … Each day was a celebration for us. Some of them (students) are gone in the disaster," Unnikrishnan told reporters.
A video song about the school, penned by Unni Mash, as he was dearly called by everyone, has gone viral since the landslide destroyed the school.
"The children were like family. We have been to the houses of most of them. I have had food from their houses. We were like family," said an inconsolable Unni Mash. Other teachers struggled to speak as they recalled the moment when some of them were requested by the authorities to identify a few bodies.
"It's not just the students, but their families too have gone," another teacher said.
Ammukutty, a student, was pulled out from the rubble by her hand – the only part of her body visible above the debris.
"She was pulled out from the ground," the teacher said, weeping.
"Students need counselling. How are we going to tell them that their friends are no more!" another teacher said.
At latest count, a total of 210 bodies had been recovered from the ravages of the landslide. Of the total, 85 were women, 96 men, and 29 children.
Several people remain missing, and rescue operators are battling adverse conditions, including waterlogged soil, as they search through destroyed homes and buildings for survivors.
