Bikram Giri

Seven Nepali migrant workers died and were two injured in a landslide Sunday evening in Uttarakhanda of India, Nepal Police said on Monday.

The seven Nepali workers who were digging road in a village of Uttarakhanda were buried to death under a huge boulder brought down by the landslide. All seven were from two different VDCs of Baitadi district, according to the District Police Office of Darchula. 

Four of the dead have been identified as Ramiram Luhar, 30; Shyam Ram Bhul, 32; Santosh Luhar, 40; and Mandhwaj Luhar, 43 - are from Bishalpur VDC-2 of Baitadi district. The other three have been identified as Birendra Ram Suni, 25, and Jhupi Ram Suni, 46, of Sarmali VDC; and Bisan Ram Sarki, 35, of Sarmali VDC-1. 

Similarly, the two injured workers have been identified as Mansingh Luhar, 26, of Bishalpur VDC-9 and Ramesh Ram Tiruwa, 20, of Sarmali VDC-8.

The road construction site is in Pangwa village in Dar Gram Panchayat of Uttarakhanda 50 km to the north of Indian town of Dharchula near Nepal´s Darchula district. 

The dead bodies of six workers, which were brought to Dharchula on Monday, will be handed over to their families. But the body of Jhupi Ram was still under the landslide debris till Monday evening. 

According to DSP Dev Bahadur Bogati, who reached Dharchula on Monday to receive the bodies, the landslide occurred when Nepali workers were preparing to blast a huge rock stuck in the middle of the track line. 

DSP Bogati said the six dead bodies have been kept at a Primary Health Centre in Dharchula. A team of doctors deployed from District Hospital of Pithauragadh has already arrived in Dharchula for conducting postmortems. "We will hand over the bodies to the victims´ families on Tuesday," he said. "The victims´ families will come to Lohaghat bazaar of India to receive the bodies." 

The families of the victims had learnt about the tragedy only on Monday morning. According to Karan Saud, a local schoolteacher in Sarmali VDC-1 of Baitadi, the seven workers had gone to Uttarakhanda a month ago in a group of around 40 other villagers.

Published on: 4 September 2012 | Republica