Rain or landslide, feisty Kodavas keep spirits high

Mysuru: The rains might have ravaged Kodagu but the boisterous spirit of  the Kodavas remains intact.

Besides measures to prevent outbreak of epidemics and counselling and yoga sessions, provided by a team of 30 yoga experts, people at the relief centres in Kodagu are getting involved in cultural activities. And masking their pain, the people especially children, shook a leg while dancing to the tunes of music at relief centres on Wednesday. It’s all happening because of their resilience and the high morale of people in Coffee Land, which comes with the proud feeling of belonging to a martial race, explained psychiatrist Dr Roopesh Gopal N V.

Dr Gopal, a retired military officer, added, “such disasters might lead to acute stress among victims with symptoms like anger, sadness and fear. Our team of  40 students, led by four psychiatrists and four psychologists are  trying to identify the symptoms of acute stress reaction, but 99 percent of people do not have these symptoms while 910 people have returned to their homes and are getting back to normal.  

Besides holding group counselling sessions to boost their morale, movies are being  screened through projectors at the relief centres. Kids are provided with toys like snake and ladder and ludo. “They and adult groups are being involved in games, music and dance for which the response is good,” he said.

According to noted medical expert, Dr Rajkumar P Wadhwa, such disasters might lead to damaged pipelines which may cause mixing of contaminated water with drinking water. This is likely to cause water-borne illnesses like diarrhoea, vomiting, loose motion, jaundice and typhoid while stagnant water may lead to proliferation of mosquitoes leading to transmission of vector borne illnesses like viral fever, dengue, leptospirosis, jaundice and kidney failure, he said.

Health Commissioner Mr P .K. Pandey who is camping in Kodagu, said that necessary precautions are being taken to prevent outbreak of water and vector borne diseases. According to Kodagu district health officer, Dr Rajesh, 63 doctors and 63 nurses are functioning round the clock at the relief centres. Also 202 doctors have enrolled themselves on google doc. There is sufficient stock of medicines, he said.

Meanwhile, the BBMP has deployed 300 pourakarmikas, seven health inspectors and engineers to take care of sanitation. The hygiene at relief camps is being monitored by health inspectors with six lakh litres of clean drinking water provided to relief camps. Chlorination, fogging and other measures are being taken up wherever necessary, sources said.