Flash flood in Kottapuzha near Nilambur kills five, one woman missing
Five bodies were recovered and a woman remains missing after a flash flood hit the T.K. Colony stretch of the Kottapuzha in Nilambur on Sunday evening.
A quiet Sunday evening at a riverside spot in Nilambur turned into a tragedy when a flash flood swept through the Kottapuzha at T.K. Colony near Amarambalam, leaving five people dead and one woman missing.
The stretch had been crowded through the day with families and groups from Malappuram and nearby areas. Visitors sat on the large granite boulders scattered along the riverbed, bathed in the shallow water, and relaxed on the banks. The spot has drawn growing numbers of people after videos and reels of the area circulated on Instagram and YouTube.
Around 5 p.m., the water, calm until then, began rushing downstream and quickly surrounded the rocks where people had been sitting. Those on the banks raised an alarm as visitors in the middle of the river were cut off from the shore. Six people were caught in the surge. Five bodies were recovered, bearing injuries from being swept against the granite rocks, and a woman is still missing.
More than two dozen people were stranded in the river. Residents, forest staff, and volunteers joined the rescue effort and brought them to safety, averting a larger loss of life. Search teams continued to work in the gushing waters on Monday.
Kottappuzha is a tributary of the Kuthirapuzha, which joins the Chaliyar at Vadapuram near Nilambur. It rises on the western slopes of the Upper Bhavani Reservoir in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiris district and flows through dense forest and rocky terrain before reaching T.K. Colony. With little human activity upstream, the river stays clear and relatively calm for much of the year, which is part of its appeal.
That calm can be misleading. Heavy rain in the forest upstream can send a sudden surge downstream even when the sky over T.K. Colony is clear, leaving visitors with little time to react.
Residents said they had long been aware of the river's tendency to rise abruptly after upstream rain and had grown worried as crowds increased, especially on holidays. "What we feared happened on Sunday. We have been urging local authorities to regulate access to the area ever since the crowds began growing," said local resident Mohammed Ali.