The clouds of worry that gather over the forest-side villages of Kurumbanmoozhy and Arayanjilimon every year during the monsoons are finally dissipating.
To ensure a safe passage of the villagers here to the world outside during the rainy seasons, authorities have decided to construct footbridges across the Pampa to each of these settlements. As part of it, an expert team from the Steel Industrials Kerala Limited, a State owned PSU, visited these locations last week and prepared the estimates.
According to the Ranni legislator Pramod Narayan, the footbridges are being established in view of a perceived delay in constructing permanent bridges to replace the causeways at these locations. A proposal for construction of bridges at these locations has been pending with the Chief Minister and the Public Works Minister
Earlier, the local legislator had brought the plight of the villagers here, who remain trapped in the settlement for days on end during the monsoons, to the attention of Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Tribes K. Radhakrishnan.
Surrounded by forests on three sides and the Pampa river on the other side, these villages get isolated with a rise in the Pampa’s water level. As per estimates, the flood waters took over these causeways on over 15 occasions over the last two monsoons, cutting of these villages from the mainland.
Official sources attribute the recurring floods in the region to the silt brought about by the 2018 floods, which effectively lowered the height of the causeways. The construction of a hydroelectric project at Perumthenaruvi, a few hundred metres downstream the Kurumbanmoozhy causeway, and the resultant accumulation of soil and debris too have contributed to the deluge.
