2‚000 returned from disaster-hit Indian state
Surendra Kafle
900 people reached Nepalgunj on Sunday‚ 100 others on Monday
As many as 2,000 Nepalis, out of thousands stranded in Kedarnath and Badrinath in Uttarakhand after floods and landslides hit the Himalayan state of India, have returned home via Nepalgunj, authorities said today.
SI Harihar Khadka of Jamunaha Area Police Office said till Saturday 1,000 Nepalis had reached home via Nepalgunj while 900 returned on Sunday and another 100 today.
According to SI Khadka, most of returnees are from Rukum, Kalikot, Salyan and Jajarkot and they used to work there as porters.
Lilaraj Neupane of Badalkot, Kalikot, said he was thankful to the god that he could return safe but added that he was sorry about three of his friends whose whereabouts he did not know. “I had never seen anything like this before... many were swept away by floods and several others were buried in landslides,” he recounted. “It was raining continuously for three days and we had taken a break from our work and gone to a nearby theatre to watch a movie in the evening.
Even before the film was over we heard that our rented rooms had been swept away and in no time the disaster hit the cinema hall. I ran to a nearby forest to save my life but I do not know what happened to my three friends.”
He said he spent two days in the jungle without food. “Later I reached Sonparag from where I went to Rishikesh and then to Haridwar and Rupaidiha,” he said.
According to Banke Chief District Officer Jiban Kumar Oli, his office is providing food and travel expenses to the returnees so that they can reach their homes safely.
10 from Bajura missing
BAJURA: As many as 10 persons from Gudukhati and Dogadi VDCs of Bajura, who were in Kedarnath for work, have been missing. Tul Dhami, Madan Dhami, Maghe Dhami, Ram Dhami, Prem Dhami, Pappu Dhami, Prem Dhami and Keshav Dhami of Gudukhati and Bharat Budha and Rudra Rawat of Dogadi have gone missing, said Kalak Dhami, a local teacher. Thirty-five-year-old Amar Dhami of Gudukhati had died and three others of the same place had been injured in the natural disaster that struck the Indian state of Uttarakhand last week.
Published on: 25 June 2013 | The Himalayan Times
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