Edamalakkudy residents pay with lives for lack of roads, healthcare

Deep inside the lush forests of Munnar, the state's first tribal panchayat, Edamalakkudy, remains cut off from the very essentials of life.

- Nejma Sulaiman @Idukki

For its residents, survival often hinges not on medical treatment but on whether they can walk miles through dense forest with the sick and dying on makeshift stretchers. Many cannot, and the price is paid with lives.

This year alone, four people—including a six-year-old boy—have died simply because they could not be taken to a hospital on time. Among them were Parvathy, 70, Venu, 85, and Amritavally, 50. But it was the death of little Karthik from Koodalarkudi that has left even healthcare workers shattered.

"Karthik had a seizure following a fever. A patient with seizures must be rushed to hospital within half an hour. But his family had to walk two hours through thick forest after the road was found unfit for use. By the time they reached, the boy was gone," says Dr. Sakhil Raveendran, medical officer at the Edamalakkudy Family Health Centre (FHC), his voice heavy with helplessness.