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Terror of new landslides as villagers dig with bare hands for loved ones
Aranayake: A tale of mud and unspeakable sorrow and destruction Pix by Indika Handuwala
The weeping sound of an abandoned dog echoed through the mountains in Elangapitiya village in Aranayaka, where mud five feet deep covered three villages.
A group of villagers who had fled to safety and returned to find their former homes had disappeared without trace started to dig into the mud with bare hands and sticks, hoping to find people buried alive in the place where the dog was barking.
As the search continued, rain started to pour and a loud sound was heard from the mountain as more mud began to slide down the hill, propelled along by the rain. Villagers and onlookers ran, fearing for their lives.
It was like the terror of the previous night.
S.M. Ranjani remembers what her son told her when everybody was running for their lives that day. “Pick up the little brother and run quickly, I will take another route,” he had said.
So far, he has not returned; he and his father are counted as missing. The boy was due to sit for ordinary Level (OL) examinations this December.
“Around 4.45 in the evening, I heard a huge sound. I thought it was an airplane flying above us across the mountains. All the houses in our neighbourhood were swept away by the muddy water,” she said, describing the tragedy she had witnessed.
The inhabitants of the hamlets swept away by two landslides within minutes are linked by family ties across the three villages. One woman, S.P. Nilanthi, cannot believe that four members in her family have gone missing along with several close relatives living in other two adjacent grama sevaka divisions. Others are in hospital with severe injuries.
“When I heard the sound and screaming we started to run, I did not even look back at what was coming after us,” she recalls the moment when she joined neighbours to run for their lives.
A.I.J. Munasinghe, 32, serving in the Air Force, had ironically moved to his sister’s house here early this year from a nearby village following a warning issued by the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) of a possible landslide in his own area. He now finds himself homeless.
He lost nine members in his family. Some of his relatives saw people buried alive when the landslide occurred in the evening. “I have lost almost everything in my life,” he said. 
“My son has been crying for his bicycle we bought for him on his birthday, I told him that in the middle of all these tragedies, I am happy to have them alive,” he said.
These were some of the tragic stories the survivors explained.
At last count, 132 people are still missing, while 19 bodies have been recovered. Burials are being held.
The villagers claim they had no previous warnings about the possible landslides.
The area was identified as landslide-prone area from the early nineties, Deputy Director (Geology) at Geological Survey and Mines Bureau Dr. C.H.E.R. Siriwardana said.
“I remember that this area was affected by one of the worst landslides in the country,” he said.
Explaining the geographical formation of the area, particularly in Aranayake area, he said when heavy rains pour, the top soil layers soften into mud and prone to earthslips.
Dr. Siriwardana said since the area had been identified as being prone to landslides, government authorities had been planning to relocate the inhabitants and prevent a disaster like this.
Just hours later after the disaster in Aranayaka, the adjoining village of Bulathkohupitiya in the same district was hit.
Initial reports were that 16 people were missing. Military search operations in Bulathkohupitiya were called off on Friday after 14 bodies were recovered. It was concluded that the other two bodies could not be recovered due to the depth of the mud and continuing rain.
When the landslide covered six line-rooms of Kalupahana Estate around 10.30pm on Tuesday nobody, not even the police, came to the spot until the next morning.
Rescue operations in Bulathkohupitiya. Pic by G. Krishanthan
Inhabitants of the other line-rooms called the police hotline repeatedly and were told the police would reach them within half an hour. The next morning the police came with the military.
Derikanth Kathiresan, a construction worker employed in Saudi Arabia, came to know his whole family of seven had been buried alive in that landslide. One of his relatives told The Sunday Times the estate management had failed to provide alternative land for the families living in the line-rooms following warnings from the authorities of possible landslides.
The plantation workers said three years ago they had informed the planation administration that the line-rooms were not inhabitable. The Divisional Secretariat had notified the management of landslide risks after carrying out soil tests.
The Group Manager of Kelaniwelli Plantation company which administers Kalupahana Estate, Eranda Welikala, told this paper the estate management had not been issued with any landslide warning by the NBRO.
S.M. Ranjani
Following this week’s loss of 16 lives more than 230 people from 80 families were relocated to safer places by the administration as a temporary measure.
When asked why the administration had failed to move families from the line-rooms earlier, Mr. Welikala said management had not expected this kind of disaster as there has been no such disasters in the plantation’s 100-year-old history.
“We will take necessary actions to make sure this kind of tragedy will never happen again,” he said.
With the recovery process continuing in Aranayaka in pouring rain, the whole of Kegalle district has become a mourning zone, counting the missing ones and funerals for those who have been identified by relatives. Most tragically, in some instances there is no-one left of a family left to identify dead loved ones.
A.I.J. Munasinghe
