Madikeri: Cleaved hillocks, collapsed boulders, heaps of mud with no semblance of a road that existed, strewn coffee plants, remnants of collapsed houses… This is the cruel sight in and around Makkandur village devastated by the recent rain, floods and landslides.

Makkandur earlier was a picturesque place with plenty of greenery amid plantations of coffee and other crops. Now the inhabitants of the devastated village have been forced to migrate to other places. The village was inhabited mostly by farm labourers who had managed to build small houses for them which have been totally destroyed.

The victims who were housed in relief centres came to see the state of Makkandur and were bewildered to see the aftermath of natural calamity and their agony cannot be quantified. Their hard-earned assets and bread-winning coffee crops had literally gone extinct. The flood victims housed at relief centres and houses of relatives are waiting with fingers crossed hoping that the Government would construct houses for them. The pitiable sight was the domestic pets and livestock helplessly waiting by the roadside with nowhere to go as their masters themselves victimised totally.

Recalling the ghastly night on Aug.15, a resident of Makkandur said that it was raining heavily and he could hear the sound of landslides behind his house. He further said that the family moved quickly to a neighbour’s house to spend that night and saw the next morning their entire house destroyed. He added that about six acres of agricultural land and a house had been erased.

Another resident bemoaned that her house has been totally destroyed leaving behind just a washing machine.

Makkandur now looks like a place after a war and possibly will take a couple of years to get back to shape.