Dozens of children from four marooned tribal hamlets in the jungle across the Chaliyar river at Munderi near Nilambur in Kerala are risking their lives to reach schools every day. They have been forced to use bamboo rafts to cross the river since two bridges were washed away in the floods that devastated one of the hamlets in 2018.
The government has done nothing to re-establish physical connectivity for the 105 tribal families living in Vaniyampuzha, Tharippapotti, Iruttukuthi and Kumbalappara hamlets to reach the mainland since 2018. Although the Malappuram District Collector and his revenue colleagues raised a fund and built a hanging bridge to help the 400-odd tribes-people, it did not last beyond 2019.
