ITV News’ Asia Correspondent reports as the death toll rises to more than 1,300.
Words by Sanjay Jha, in Elkaduwa, Sri Lanka
Elkaduwa, usually promoted as one of the most tranquil corners of Sri Lanka’s Central Province, is today a village cut off from the world.
The mist-covered hillsides of Matale, famed for tea, spices and quiet rural life, have been torn apart by Cyclone Ditwah, the country’s worst natural disaster in decades.
Across Sri Lanka, the human toll continues to rise with at least 465 people confirmed dead, 366 remaining missing, and more than 1.4 million people affected.
More than 2,33,000 people have been displaced, many fleeing in darkness as landslides thundered down steep mountain slopes.
Unicef estimates that at least 275,000 children have been impacted, many now living in temporary shelters or cut off from access to safe water.
In Elkaduwa, the devastation is near total. Both access roads, Matale to Elkaduwa and Kandy to Elkaduwa, have been washed away or obliterated by landslides, leaving the community isolated for seven days.
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Resident Mohan Shivaprakashan described the scale of the catastrophe in stark terms.
“This is the first of a lifetime,” he said. “I never experienced anything like this. It is hard to describe.”
According to Mohan, around 3,000 to 4,000 families, nearly 10,000 people across three villages, are stranded, with no government or aid teams able to reach them. Food shops are empty, water is scarce and mobile networks remain patchy.
Elkaduwa recorded nearly 450mm of rain, among the highest anywhere in Sri Lanka. But residents say no one anticipated the speed at which their world would collapse.
“The ground cracked. Houses broke apart. Landslides came down everywhere at once,” Mohan said. “People were asleep. They had no place to run except the school or the temple.”
Entire mountainsides have been gouged open, leaving raw orange scars where tea bushes and forest once stood. In one neighbouring village, seven people were killed when a bridge gave way. Between 50 and 60 houses are now unlivable, tilted, fractured or buried under shifting earth.
A dog stands next to a damaged house in Elkaduwa, Sri Lanka. Credit: ITV News
Electricity has been out since November 27. With both roads gone, no delivery trucks have reached the area, and the few surviving shops have almost nothing left on their shelves.
For villagers, the crisis is deepening by the day. Sheekla Kanchana, a resident, said the cutoff has left the most vulnerable at immediate risk.
“There are many sick and pregnant people here,” she said. “They can’t get any medical treatment because we are cut off. We can’t even go to the market to buy our daily needs.”
The shortage of clean water has become one of the most urgent concerns. Priyanka Dhawanthi, another villager, said the entire community has run dry.
“There is no water in the village,” she said. “We are so upset. We are in the middle of nowhere. We don’t have food to eat. We are so sad.”
A cracked road in Elkaduwa, Sri Lanka. Credit: ITV News
Residents say they have waited three to four days for supplies that never came, as relief teams struggle with landslide-blocked routes across the Central Province.
Authorities acknowledge they are overwhelmed. Every district in Sri Lanka has been hit by either landslides or floods, and restoring road access in the hill country could take weeks.
Mohan struggled to convey the true scale of what had happened.
“For us, this is four to five times bigger than the tsunami,” he said. “People cannot communicate. They don’t know if their relatives are alive. It is like a massacre.”
Helicopters from Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan have been dropping food parcels and rescuing the injured. Yet thousands remain unreachable, marooned on isolated hilltops or valley floors cut off by cascading mud.
Standing near the remains of his property, Mohan pointed towards his fractured home on a sinking slope.
Residents stand on a road damaged by landslides in Elkaduwa, Sri Lanka. Credit: ITV News
“We cannot live there anymore,” he said. “Recovery might take months, or maybe years, to get this village back again. Maybe they will need to build new roads entirely.”
Many villagers face the same uncertainty. They do not know whether their homes will be rebuilt or whether they will be permanently relocated. For now, they remain unable to leave until access routes reopen.
“Whatever help humanitarian agencies can give, we will accept. People want a peaceful life again. Essentials, shelter, a safe place. If they can’t live here anymore, then help them start somewhere else,” said Mohan.
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Across Sri Lanka’s hill country, teams surveying the damage describe the same scenes: homes swallowed, roads erased, lone roofs protruding from mud, families waiting beside landslide scars in search of missing loved ones.
Cyclone Ditwah is now the deadliest disaster since the 2004 tsunami. But for villages like Elkaduwa, the emotional impact may be even deeper. This is not just the destruction of infrastructure; it is the loss of entire landscapes, livelihoods, and identities.
For now, Elkaduwa remains a village stranded on a broken mountainside, waiting for the world to reach it.
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