Uttarakhand Flood Relief

10th July, 2013
Kalimath is the most heavily affected area around. Even today, one house slided down into the river across us before our eyes. We are going into the villages soon. A village Devli – comprising of 57 families – out of which 54 lost at least one member – invariably the bread earning young member – during the floods. There is no male survivor in the age group of 15 to 30 in this village One of the persons described how he stood on the Nandis statue at Kedarnath the entire night, with water reaching uptil his neck. Estimates of the people who were at Kedarnath that fateful day vary from 15,000 to 30,000 –– of which just a few hundred returned. They come back, but the trauma haunts them – seeing their children washed away right before them, or knowing that their loved ones are trapped in their hotel rooms – covered by twenty feet of silt.

– Mukesh