India, Dec. 6 -- As Kerala braces for another round of local body elections, a small but haunting absence defines this democratic season in the northern district of Wayanad. Amid the banners, door-to-door campaigns, and manifesto promises echoing across the hills, there lies a deep, damp, unbroken silence. The silence of Mundakkai, a gram panchayat ward that no longer exists.

Last year, it was one among Meppadi panchayat's 22 wards, a quiet, self-sufficient hamlet where plantation workers and small farmers lived side by side, their lives woven into the slopes of tea and coffee estates. Today, Mundakkai is gone, wiped off not just from the geographical maps but also from the electoral rolls.

A ward erased from democracy

In the aftermath...