As many as 293 tribal families in Attappadi, Palakkad district, have been without electricity for 21 days, and the long outage has been affecting mobile communication, cooking, children’s studies and daily life in some remote hamlets in the state.
The residents of Chindakki, Thadikkundu, Murugala, Kinattukara, Thazhe Anavai, Mele Anavai and Kadukumanna have been experiencing the crisis due to damage to an underground electricity cable when BSNL cable-laying work was done. It was difficult to restore it after the damage because it was always raining.
In these forest-fringe settlements, for families without electricity, there are problems beyond light. Mobile phones that are vital for emergency services and the outside world are becoming hard to charge.
Residents travel long distances to charge phones.
The geographical isolation of the affected hamlets has made it particularly difficult.
Kadukumanna is about 16 km from Mukkali, the nearest town, and does not have a proper road suitable even for two-wheelers. Anavai is about 12 km from Mukkali, and Kinattukara is more than 7 km away. Anavai has a road, but people walk to reach their destinations.
Residents said the lack of electricity has also presented safety issues after dark. The area is surrounded by forest and wild elephants are commonly seen in the area.
Ramesh, a resident of Anavai, said people avoid coming out after 5 pm; darkness and elephants are so common. He said mobile phones are frequently out of charge and residents can’t call people in nearby towns.
The families have been approaching and contacting Kerala State Electricity Board officials regularly for help.
KSEB finds several faults along the underground cable.
The KSEB has said that the difficulty in restoring electricity to the underground cable system is due to multiple faults.
According to a senior officer in Agali KSEB sub-division, there were a number of faults reported after repair works started on the 15-km-long underground cable system. As of Sunday evening, officials had rectified faults at nearly 16 locations along an 8-km stretch.
KSEB officials said the cables were punctured at several points during the BSNL cable-laying work. Water then entered the underground system, further complicating the repair process.
On Sunday, electricity was restored to Thadikkundu, Murugala and Kinattukara. But the outage continued in the other affected settlements.
The repair operation has also faced logistical challenges because the cable runs through forest terrain. Heavy vehicles and machinery are not able to reach the areas of concern, officials said.
The cable system was commissioned in 2024.
The underground electricity cable system serving the area was commissioned in 2024, and the current disruption is reportedly the first time the region has experienced such a prolonged power outage.
To do so, a cable-testing team was sent from Kozhikode to check and fix the faults. Equipment problems also kept officials from working during the operation, with vehicles and machinery breaking down on more than one occasion.
The combination of multiple cable faults, water entering the underground system, difficult terrain, and persistent rain has slowed the restoration process.
The authorities have been trying to find and repair the damaged sections by not only addressing one point of failure but also the damage to the network in several areas; the cable network has suffered, these individuals said.
Tribal families are looking for government help.
The long-term disruption is causing families in Kerala to ask for immediate intervention from Kerala Electricity Minister Sunny Joseph.
Residents have called on the government to get electricity restored immediately and said that the government is not addressing the longstanding problems they have, they said.
This outage is particularly critical in Attappadi because many of the affected settlements are deep in or very close to forest areas. With limited road connection, even basic things like charging a phone can take several kilometres for residents to get there.
The lack of electricity also affects children’s education, household activities and communication. Residents of the affected hamlets have previously told local media they have had difficulty cooking and studying after dark, and phone charging is of particular concern in case of emergency, too.
But for the families still without electricity, the immediate priority is the restoration of the damaged underground network. KSEB has already repaired some of the sections and supplied three hamlets, but work continues on the rest.
The incident also brought into focus the need for infrastructure to be maintained in remote forest settlements where mountainous terrain and limited access to roads can make emergency work slow down considerably.
