Residents of Nakkayam in Idukki still forced to carry patients on plastic chairs
Nakkayam residents face severe isolation due to the lack of a motorable road, forcing families to carry groceries on their heads for kilometres and rent homes in nearby towns for children's schooling during monsoons.
Nakkayam residents face severe isolation due to the lack of a motorable road, forcing families to carry groceries on their heads for kilometres and rent homes in nearby towns for children's schooling during monsoons.
Nakkayam residents face severe isolation due to the lack of a motorable road, forcing families to carry groceries on their heads for kilometres and rent homes in nearby towns for children's schooling during monsoons.
Idukki: Relief continues to elude the residents of Nakkayam, a border settlement between the Vannappuram and Kanjikkuzhi panchayats, as their daily commuting ordeal goes unaddressed. Rain or shine, their plight remains the same. Home to around a hundred families, this locality lacks basic motorable connectivity. In the event of a medical emergency, locals have no choice but to carry patients on plastic chairs across rough terrain to reach a motorable road.
To spare their children the gruelling daily commute to school, several families have even been forced to rent homes in Vannappuram town. Ironically, despite being located just off the Muvattupuzha–Theni State Highway, residents still have to haul essential groceries and provisions on their heads for kilometers to reach home. With the onset of the monsoon, life in Nakkayam turns into an everyday nightmare. The commute involves navigating a treacherous, steep dirt track full of sharp climbs and drops.
The route to Nakkayam falls under the jurisdiction of both the Vannappuram and Kanjikkuzhi panchayats. However, between the two local bodies, only a half-kilometer stretch has ever been paved with concrete; the remaining 1.5-kilometer stretch remains an unpaved mud track. Heavy runoff has washed away the topsoil, carving out massive craters and turning the trail into a slush-filled obstacle course that requires sheer daring to traverse.
The elderly and young children bear the heaviest brunt of this neglect. Because the track is completely impassable, no vehicle—including ambulances—can enter the village, leaving improvised chair-carriages as their only lifeline for the sick. Though Nakkayam holds immense potential as a scenic getaway, it remains completely cut off from visitors purely due to the lack of a proper access road.