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Kerala Floods: This Village Is Still Waiting For Waters To Recede Even As The Rest Of The State Limps Back To Normalcy

80 villages have been affected and are empty.
People wade through a flooded street in Kuttanad on 20 August.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
People wade through a flooded street in Kuttanad on 20 August.

While the rest of Kerala is limping back to normalcy after the rains have abated and the water is receding, the Kuttanad region is still mostly empty as the flood waters have not receded there yet.

Known as the rice bowl of Kerala and famous for its scenic backwaters that attract tourists from around the world, Kuttanad is still reeling from the aftermath of the floods that ravaged Kerala this month.

The Indian Express reports that 80 villages have been affected and are empty and that the people of the villages are living in the mainlands of Alappuzha and Changanassery.

The report says that Kuttanad is used to floods since it is 2.2 metres below the sea level. But it has perhaps not seen floods as devastating as these.

The newspaper quoted farmer A D Raju as saying, "Water would flood our paddy fields. But never has it submerged us like this. In the first bout of flood last month, we lost our entire cultivation. We stayed in camps within Kuttanad. But last week, we were completely uprooted as there was no safe place in Kuttanad."

Apart from flood waters, snakes and wildlife creeping into homes has made the area unliveable.

The New Indian Express reported that more than 150 poisonous snakes—including cobras, vipers and kraits—had been caught in the Alappuzha district, in which Kuttanad is located.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.