'I could see their eyes welling up': Woman recounts how wild elephants guarded family from Wayanad landslides

In a terrifyingincidentfrom Kerala’s landslide-ravaged Wayanad, a grandmother and her granddaughter were found nestled beneath the feet of a wild elephant.

Sujatha Aninanchira and her family madeone of the most daring escapes from the Chooralmala landslides, when their home was flattened by rubble in the wee hours of Tuesday (Jul 30).

The entire family of five people was trapped in the landslide until they extricated themselves from the rubble and climbed to a hillock only to find a tusker and two female elephants to their relief.

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Sujatha, sitting in a relief camp at Mepadi GHSS with her granddaughter recounts the harrowing experience of being hit by a landslide and eventually finding some solace in a group of elephants- a story that is no less than a miracle.

“It was pitch dark and just half a metre away from us was a wild tusker. It too seemed terrified. I mumbled a request to the elephant, saying I had just survived a disaster and asked it to spare us to allow us to lie down for the night and let someone rescue us,” Sujatha said.

Her face revealed the terror of the night when she escaped from the collapsing house, holding on to her grandchild.

"The water was like the sea. Trees were floating by. When I looked outside, my neighbour's two-story house was collapsing. It fell and destroyed our house. I heard my granddaughter, Mridula, crying as I was trying to get out. I grabbed hold of her little finger, covered her with a cloth, and began swimming through the flooding water."

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Her son Gigeesh, his wife Sujitha, and her grandson Suraj were in another house nearby. Gigeesh dragged them one by one through the water. Sujitha's back and Suraj's chest were badly injured. When they finally reached the shore and moved through the coffee plantation, the elephant appeared in their path.

Sujatha said she tried to ask for help while swimming down gushing water but no one could hear her.

“The others lay in the coffee plantation, while my granddaughter and I huddled beneath the feet of the elephant. The situation continued until dawn” said Sujatha.

Sujatha with her granddaughter remained nestled near the elephant’s feet till 6:00 am (local time), after which they were rescued by some people.

“I could see its eyes welling up as the dawn broke,” Sujatha recounts about the elephant.

(With inputs from agencies)