Nearly two years after the Wayanad disaster killed 298 people, teachers, counsellors and artists helped young survivors confront grief, trauma and loss.

Wayanad, Kerala: The sun had not yet come out when Mridula (13) found herself wading through floodwater, slush, and boulders, desperately searching for higher ground in the dark. She was in Vellarmala, a quiet hill village in Kerala's Wayanad district, nestled deep in the Western Ghats, and the mountain around her was collapsing. Then, out of the darkness, a wild elephant appeared directly in her path. Behind her, the landslide. In front, the animal. Somehow, she made it through both.

That night — July 30, 2024 — two catastrophic landslides tore through the villages of Punjirimattom, Mundakkai, Chooralmala, and Vellarmala in Meppadi panchayat, killing 298 people. Among them, 32 were Mridula's schoolmates from Vellarmala Government High School.

Almost two years later, Mridula stands holding a trophy for receiving an A grade at the Kerala State School Youth Festival for Vanchipattu, a traditional oarsman's folk song. Thirty-two of her classmates did not make it this far.

Thirteen-year-old landslide survivors holds a youth festival trophy they won ( Photo - Rajendran K, 101Reporters )

But for the children of Vellarmala Government High School, surviving the landslide was only half the battle. The other half played out in silence: in sleepless nights, lost appetites, and classrooms where, as one teacher put it, it was hard to find a single smiling face. How a school community in Wayanad pulled its youngest survivors back from the edge, and what it took, is a story that still haunts Kerala.

Picking up the pieces

The morning after the landslide, MP Dileepkumar, a teacher at Government High School Meppadi, was among the first to arrive at the school, the nearest shelter for the displaced.

"It was horrific to see the aftermath… in many cases, the teachers identified the students' bodies. The school community suffered a huge loss. Many of our children narrowly escaped… there were others who became orphans," he told 101Reporters.

"Such trauma stays with you for a long time. Our biggest challenge was how to ease this trauma from the young minds. All our students were dealing with grief. Benches on which they used to sit and study were being used to conduct their friends' postmortem examination. It is difficult to imagine what they were going through," he added.

While the immediate response brought relief in the form of shelter, healthcare and financial aid, a less visible crisis was also unfolding: the toll on mental health.

Pictures of the students who lost their lives in the flood ( Photo - Rajendran K, 101Reporters )

“It is also true that the effect on mental health would not be visible immediately…many times trauma responses manifest after many days or months, and in different ways for different people," said Dr TM Shibukumar, psychologist at Government Medical College Calicut.

Take for example the case of a 10-year-old girl who had a narrow escape. Her father told 101Reporters that the girl used to think that the disaster did not actually take place but was all a dream. "She was not ready to accept that it is the reality," he said. "Only after seeing photographs of her deceased friends did she realise that it actually happened."

More than medicine

The Kerala State Mental Health Programme mobilised 150 counsellors and psychiatrists across 17 relief camps, conducting over 2,000 individual and 401 group counselling sessions. The Wayanad District Child Protection Unit ran a dedicated programme called Kuttiyidam, creating safe spaces for play and creative activities in 15 relief camps, attracting an average of 265 children daily.

"Periodic counselling and treatments were provided for one year, at their doorsteps. Each and every child received individual care," said Dr Vrijesh, who was actively involved as a counsellor in the aftermath.

But the real test came when the school reopened three months later. "It was difficult to find a single smiling face among the students," recalled Unnikrishnan Master, a teacher at Vellarmala High School who was also acting headmaster when the landslides struck. An artist and musician, he understood something the clinical response could not fully address. "As an artist, I know the power of art," he said. "We had to find a new way."

When the clowns came in

Master's first move was to call in his artist friends. Two theatre personalities from Pathanamthitta, Manoj Suni and KS Binu, arrived at the school dressed up as clowns. They went class to class. They danced, they played, they pulled children into the performance. Classrooms that had sat under a pall of silence turned loud.

“A student in the 10th standard who had lost his mother and sister hugged me with great laughter after our performance," Suni said. "I lost my control and wept. Maybe it was the first time a clown, who is supposed to always be laughed at, broke down to tears."

Theatre artists Manoj Suni and and KS Binu dressed as a clown to bring laughter children ( Photo - Rajendran K, 101Reporters )

The clowns were followed by S Radhakrishnan, a teacher from Alapuzha, who came with simple scientific experiments, mathematical puzzles and craft. His sessions did not just engage children in school, they gave them something to carry home. 

Bijulal (name changed), whose son had lost several close friends in the landslide had become withdrawn after the disaster. Then one day he asked for a bundle of coloured paper. 

“He had no appetite and would always sleep…when he asked me to buy the coloured paper I bought it immediately. He later made a beautiful Christmas Star with the papers,” Bijulal said. “This was a turning point. It was the beginning. He found enthusiasm in paper craft. Sooner than later he went back to being himself.” 

But perhaps the most striking moment came on a stage in Thiruvananthapuram. The students of Vellarmala performed a drama, Vellapokkatil — In the Flood — at the Kerala State School Youth Festival 2024. All seven actors were survivors of the landslide. The play, based on a story by Malayalam writer Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai about the suffering of humans and animals during a flood, was uncomfortably close to what they had lived through.

"I was afraid he would break down on stage because it was a real depiction of the trauma he had faced," said the father of one of the child actors. "On the contrary, he really enjoyed it. He became more joyous. It really changed his life."

Back to class

In 2025 and 2026 every single student in Vellarmala Government High School's 10th grade passed the SSLC examination.

"Children in Vellarmala have become an icon of how to overcome mental trauma after a disaster," said V Sivankutty, former Kerala's Education Minister. "It was made possible only due to the wholehearted togetherness of teachers, parents and the entire community."

Abdul Muneer, the school's headmaster, said, "All 22 teachers have been working round the clock, irrespective of their personal matters…That is also a reason for our success."

Mridula, who was preparing for her next examination, said, "I am not alone. Not only my family but also my villagers, teachers and many people I couldn't even recognise have firmly stood with me," she said. "Now I am thinking of scoring good marks and winning more prizes."

This story was produced as a part of 101Reporters Climate Change Reporting Grant

Cover Image - Young children sitting in the back of a vehicle in Wayanad ( Photo - Rajendran K, 101Reporters )