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| Cracks widen, rumours add to panic (April 16)
Panic, but no damage, in UP hills (April 16) Killer Quakes (April 12) Tremors trigger demand for tents (April 10) Panel to assess damage in quake-hit Distts (April 9) Quake-hit spend cash dole on booze (April 9) Another quake rocks UP (April 8) No respite from quakes for Chamoli residents (April 8) More landslides, floods await Chamoli (April 6) Noxious fumes in Garhwal village cause a stir (April 6) Chamoli dreads rains (April 5) Quake collapses will be soon forgotten, say experts (April 5) Rain will spell more disaster in UP hills (April 3) VIP visits hamper relief work (April 3) Quake-hit victims wait patiently for the much needed relief (April 2) Sonia to visit quake-hit areas in UP (April 2) Himalayan Earthquake Relief Hampered by Remoteness, Lack of Headlines (April 2) Tremors cease in Garhwal (April 1) Experts concerned over second quake in Garhwal (April 1) Tales of woe of quake victims (April 1) Fresh tremor hits quake-hit area (April 1) India's Earthquake Victims Mourn the Dead as the Clean-Up Effort Begins (March 31) Another quake in Garhwal, 50 hurt (March 31) Quaking with fear, many residents prefer open sky (March 31) Fresh tremors rock Chamoli (March 30) Tragedy in the hills (March 31) The quake havoc (March 31) A quake-hit town awaits relief (March 31) Experts differ on depth of focus of quake (March 30) Chamoli - a ghost town today (March 31) Fresh tremors in Garhwal; rescue efforts continue Centre announces relief package (March 31) Survivors brave elements, maneaters (March 31) Centre should study causes of calamities in hills: Kalyan (March 31) Quake's effect was equal to H-bomb blast (March 31) Quake death toll nears 100: Thousands of homes were completely destroyed (March 30) Sombre Garhwalis get down to the task of clearing up (March 30) Tremors will continue for some more days (March 30) UP quake toll touches 100 (March 30) Seismologists find UP quake extraordinary (March 30) Himalayan quakes devastate larger areas: expert (March 30) Quakes are unpredictable, says expert (March 30) Quake epicentre was in the UP hills (March 30) Death toll rising in northern India earthquake (March 29) Overnight, Chamoli turns a ghost town (March 29) 88 killed as major quake rocks N. India (March 29) Quake proves landmass still moving northwards: Experts (March 30) Survivors describe a `night of horror' (March 30) 100 feared killed as quake hits Garhwal (March 30) BIS updating India's quake map (March 30) Medical teams rushed to Garhwal (March 30) Quake among country's top 15 in two centuries (March 30) 85 killed, many injured as quake rocks North India (March 30) |
Cracks widen, rumours add to panic
Date: 16-04-1999 :: Pg: 15 :: Col: a By Our Staff Correspondent (The Hindu) CHAMOLI, APRIL 15. Repeated aftershocks of the Chamoli earthquake, especially the one measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale that shook the region around 10.44 last night with its epicenter in Chamoli, have further widened the cracks in buildings, roads and hill sides compounding the panic that grips the people. The shocks were felt all over Chamoli, Pauri Garhwal, Tehri Garhwal, Dehra Dun, Hardwar, Muzzafarnagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad and Delhi. Rumours of a major earthquake in the offing, fanned by 'predictions' of self styled experts are making matters worse. According to Mr Vinod Kumar Dandona, Commandant, Garhwal Sector of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police no casualties had been reported from the region till late in the evening today though reports of existing cracks widening had come in from far flung areas where the ITBP personnel were located for routine or relief works. The massive landslides that have occurred in the region over the past fortnight and the loosening of the earth's crust in this ecologically and geologically fragile region may, it is feared, lead to more landslips during monsoons or any heavy downpour and experts feel that the people should be ready for it. The increase in water flow from natural sources including the increase in the water level of Ningol river in Ningol valley in Pokhri Tehsil of Chamoli are part of the ongoing phenomenon. ``Scientifically speaking, the upheavals may be of great interest to scientists but will lead to more hardship and fear among the people,'' according to Mr R C Chamoli, a gram sabha member of Pokhri. Referring to the ambitious construction of earthquake resistant houses project undertaken by the HUDCO and other agencies, Mr Jai Singh Rawat, a social worker said it would be good to provide built houses to the people who should be asked to foot a part of the bill through easy interest free installments. The people should also be asked to contribute in the form of labour. This Mr Rawat felt would ensure people's participation. They would also feel more involved in the effort. Mere doling out of funds, a good portion of which will get siphoned off by corrupt officials and squandered by the males of the beneficiary families would not serve any purpose, he said. Mr Rawat's views are echoed by social workers Ms Sarla Bahuguna, Ms Rashmi Dobhal and Ms Kalawati who have urged the Chief Minister, Mr Kalyan Singh, to order handing over of constructed houses to them rather than providing money to rebuild or repair the damaged houses. The money would be siphoned by corrupt officials or the menfolk would prefer to spend it on liquor, they apprehend. Dr Niranjan Singh Virdi, scientist F at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) in Dehra Dun while welcoming the formation of a Task Force for handling the hazard problems of Garhwal, stressed upon the need for an urgent establishment of a network (array) of instruments in the region to get the data to identify zones that need immediate attention in this geologically well-known area. The WIHG has an array in Kangra - Dharmshala - Chamba area of Himachal Pradesh and is getting good records from there. In Garhwal, the Institute however has only one station at Garud Ganga near Joshimath. At present the National Geology Research Institute, the WIHG and a few others have placed instruments in Garhwal, but these will be taken back once the rehabilitation project is completed. Dr Virdi also felt that a long-term study of landslides and landslide-prone areas was required. ``As disaster mitigation was a multi-disciplinary affair, it would be better to set up a special group headed by a noted specialist and involving all people who matter, including bureaucrats. Such a group exists in Himachal Pradesh and could come into existence here too,'' Dr Virdi said.
Panic, but no damage, in UP hills By R.P. Nailwal The Times of India News Service (April 16, 1999) DEHRA DUN: The earthquake that rattled the entire Garhwal region around 10.50 p.m. on Wednesday with an intensity of 5.2 on the Richter scale, has led to more panic among the hillfolk. However, no damage was reported from any part of the five hill districts. Tremors have continued to be experienced in the hill region since the major quake that claimed 100 lives on March 28 night. Thousands of people have since been rendered homeless and are forced to spend the nights under the open skies. Commissioner, Garhwal division, V.M. Vohra told The Times of India News Service on Thursday that no major damage had been reported from any part of the Garhwal and only some walls of a police building in Gopeswar had given way. But unofficial sources in Gopeswar said the jolt had triggered slope failures and led to the road blockades in many areas. They said people sleeping in the open were far more panic-striken now. The cracks in the walls of those village houses which did not give way in the previous quake had widened. Life in the worst-affected villages such as Gair, Tangsa, Seron, Devaldhar, Gangol, Mawan and Kathur and Chamoli town is already disrupted as 90 per cent houses have been razed to the ground. Meanwhile, there is no let up in complaints about the really needy not getting relief. Only those by the roadside are said to have benefited. There are also allegations that government agencies and NGOs are doing little to meet the people's needs. The quake victims in Bhilangna block of Tehri Garhwal district have been complaining that that no one has paid serious attention to the six most affected villages in the district where some people were also killed. Reports from Rudraprayag and Gopeswar say that by and large, life in the entire quake-hit region remains paralysed. Villagers continue to live in the open, awaiting rehabilitation. ``The onset of the monsoon will aggravate their problems manifold. Besides, the danger of wild animals are posing a threat to the villagers' lives,'' said O.P. Bhatt, a Gopeswar resident.
Chamoli's midnight tremblor could be a precursor to a larger earthquake predicted to savage the Himalayas. But don't expect anyone to be ready. India Today -- April 12, 1999 By Sayantan Chakravarty Wild-eyed and stunned, Mayeshwari Devi crouches on the ground, a tired speck of humanity stunted into insignificance by the great mountains of Garhwal. The rubble behind her, once her home, is now a tomb for her two teenage daughters. Her two little boys are hurt, and Devi has little to say. "I have lost everything," the 42-year-old widow mutters over and over again. She will not go indoors, fearing she will be crushed, like her daughters were. Like Mayeshwari, thousands of traumatised, homeless people cower fearfully in the hills and valleys, their fear springing from an unseen subterranean energy that would dwarf the world's nuclear arsenal. Such was the power released on March 29 and 30 when an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale rumbled through the Himalayas, killing 100 people and rendering thousands homeless in 500 villages, mainly in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts, in a half-minute violent shaking of the earth. Below the Himalayas, giant slabs of earth carrying the Indian subcontinent were grinding into Asia, shaking the mountains effortlessly, like a wrinkled bedsheet. The tremor was felt as far away as Delhi, where thousands poured on to the streets at night and many houses developed cracks. It is, geologists stress, a precursor to the big one, a tremblor measuring 8 that could one day soon devastate large swathes of north India. The Richter scale is not mathematical. Each time the magnitude increases by one unit, the ground moves 10 times faster and releases hugely more energy. A magnitude 6 quake has about 32 times more energy than one of magnitude 5. "Chamoli is just smoke, we should be looking for the fire," warns J.G. Negi, emeritus scientist at the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad. It is a warning that he has frequently made. The last big one was in 1950 in Assam, a ripper of 8.5 that killed 532 people. In the past 100 years, four of the 14 largest quakes have occurred in the Himalayas, one of the world's most active seismic zones. Last year hundreds died when unstable mountainsides collapsed in Malpa and Rudraprayag. "This is all in the same tectonic belt, but we can only speculate on the connection," says V.C. Thakur, head of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun. Wadia geologists are now out studying the aftershocks of Chamoli. About 30 more tremors measuring between 2.4 and 5 on the Richter scale have kept the hills swathed in a seemingly endless terror. It is everywhere. Goldsmith Sikander Shah, 30, cringes when he recounts his torment. The slender youth from Sitamarhi, Bihar, settled in lower Chamoli about 12 years ago, earning a good living for himself. On the midnight of March 28, his happy world lay in ruins. Five of his closest relatives were crushed by heavy stone slabs that came tearing down in a flash. There was no time to act. "The noise was as though the earth below was opening up," says Usha Devi, his wife, who was in the same house. "Then came the cries of the dying." The Rs 50,000 that the Government has promised to the families of each of the dead will be small compensation for the Shahs. Around 30 persons in and around the Purana Bazaar area where the Shahs settled also died. In Upper Chamoli the casualties were not as high but the destruction was appalling. In a police lock-up, six people, including a woman, were killed instantly. "Like a leaf in a storm, our house shook and then everything crumbled," recalls constable K.K. Singh. With wife Hira Devi, Singh rushed to the lock-up but it was too late. Nine injured prisoners were removed in the darkness. The six lay crushed under entire sections of walls and roofs. Fear stalks the streets, the fields, creeps into the tents of the homeless. In the district headquarters of Gopeshwar, normal life has come to an end. The town folk do not want to stay indoors as an "earthquake alarm" rings across the skies every now and then. Often people rush out on false alarms. Says school- teacher Usha Bhat: "We can't sit in peace inside as our houses have cracked up." But out in the open there is another fear. "It is unsafe to sleep here," says Sukhdev Singh, 21, tremulously. Garhwal is leopard country, notorious in the past few years for flash attacks on humans by the big cats. As for disaster management, don't look beyond the tired, inadequate knee-jerk reactions. No one has ever bothered about cheaper alternatives for the brittle stone and tin houses perched precariously on the hillsides. No one's ever heard of the building codes that faceless bureaucrats draw up. For now even the tents being pitched in the villages, in habitations that dot the roadheads, are grossly inadequate. Medical aid is a dream for many. Mayeshwari's son Amit Raj, 10, has a laceration on his right ankle caused by a sharp slab that tore into him. Forget the counselling he so desperately needs after losing his sisters, he hasn't seen a doctor yet. For now all speech has simply deserted him. As politicians swarm the two villages, officials can't be seen. Not that the sight of politicians is welcome. In Upper Chamoli, Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee's emissaries, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K.C. Pant and Minister of State for Agriculture Som Pal, were heckled. "We saw after the 1991 quake that assurances are all you get," says Ganwar Singh dismissively moments after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh made a flying visit to the devastated village. Som Pal spoke of a comprehensive disaster-management policy (CDMP) and a calamity-relief fund with a corpus in excess of Rs 6,300 crore. How he plans to make that money trickle down effectively is not clear. All he tells you is, "An on-the-spot assessment team will come, submit a report and it shall be considered by an inter-ministerial group." "We always find the machinery works as long as VIPs come and go, then everything becomes a forgotten tale," says R.P. Nautiyal, a government counsel. So forget for now the geological studies and the building solutions needed. In the disaster-ridden Himalayas, callousness has a history -- and it will have a future.
Tremors trigger demand for tents By Biswajeet Banerjee The Times of India News Service (April 10, 1999) CHAMOLI: As fresh tremors continue to rock the region, demand for tents has gone up. From the district magistrate to prisoners, all are living in tents. The relief camp in the district magistrate's office also operates from a tent. Same is the case with the make-shift hospital. District magistrate Umakant Panwar said he felt safe in a tent. Even people whose houses have not been damaged want to live in tents, afraid that there concrete structures might not be able to withstand more tremors. Sixteen prisoners have also been put up in tents, almost unguarded. The district jail housing them was reduced to a rubble on March 28. Of the 21 prisoners, five died. The remaining were shifted to Gopeshwar where they refused to live inside a building. The district administration has so far distributed 1,647 tents and 7,521 tarpaulins. But demand for more tents continues to pour in. Manohar Lal, a resident of Saikot village, said he had been coming to the tehsil office in Chamoli for the past two days, but was yet to get a tent. The district magistrate said though life was limping back to normal, the fresh tremors on Wednesday and Thursday had once again instilled fear in the minds of people. According to an estimate, Chamoli has in the past 12 days experienced over 180 tremors of minor and major intensity. About 1,256 villages in Chamoli district alone are said to have been affected by the tremors. However, living in tents also means that people are open to attack from leopards. Though no casualty has been reported so far, government records say there are 16 man-eaters in the Garhwal region.
Panel to assess damage in quake-hit Distts The Times of India News Service (April 9, 1999) NEW DELHI: A high-powered six-member committee has been asked by the Union urban ministry to prepare a reconstruction and repair plan for earthquake-hit Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts of Uttar Pradesh. V Suresh, chairman of Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) will chair it. Uttar Pradesh's housing secretary and a professor of earthquake engineering from Roorkee University are members on the panel which will examine all the issues relating to the damage in the region and recommend follow-up measures.
Quake-hit spend cash dole on booze By Biswajeet Banerjee The Times of India News Service (April 9, 1999) CHAMOLI: With relief money in their pockets, menfolk in the quake-hit Chamoli-Gopeshwar area have hit the bottle like never before. Liquor shops that closed in the wake of the quake have reopened and are doing brisk business. Cash relief of Rs 1,000 and a bagful of atta were handed to each quake-hit family last Sunday. By the next day, when the liquor shops resumed business, much of the money was in the booze vendors' pockets. Women of the town are incensed at this. They say the least the administration could do is close down the liquor shops immediately. Kamla, a married woman, would rather forgo the cash than see it being frittered away by her husband. She says, ``Don't give cash; or, if you must give it, don't hand it to the men.'' Her husband is not impressed and quickly quells the family rebellion by shouting Kamla down. Vimla of Saikot village hasn't seen the colour of the relief money. She complains that cash is making men of her village dash for the nearest theka (country liquor shop). Some of the men have found ingenious excuses to go on a booze binge. Ishri, of Lower Chamoli, who has obviously had one too many, shows off his injuries from the quake, and explains, Dard ho raha hai, isi liye pee liya (I am feeling pain. That's why I have taken a few drinks). Septugenarian Krishan debunks Ishri, Daru for dard! So much bunkum! In Gopeshwar market, a thoroughly drunk man has passed out and is sprawled out on the street. Others around him couldn't care less. It is a good sight to laugh about. The most popular booze in these parts is Chaach, a local liquor made from rice brew. But, suddenly, the Angrezi stuff (India made foreign liquor, or IMFL) has caught the fancy of many who have graduated from chaach. As a result, IMFL sales, too, are booming. Saner counsel in the area wants the administration to stop paying cash relief. The fear is that the Rs 25,000 to be given to people whose houses were damaged in the quake and Rs 50,000 to those whose houses have been destroyed will be similarly frittered away. The administration, aware of the possibility, is pondering over the problem. The current thinking is that instead of distributing money for rebuilding houses, the government will construct houses and hand them over to the people.
REDIFF -- April 8, 1999 The Garhwal Himalayas, where more than 100 people were killed in a powerful earthquake recently, was rocked again by two tremors yesterday. But no one was injured, officials said. The first tremor at 0107 hours was of low magnitude while the second one at 0200 hours measured five on the Richter scale. Following the recent killer earthquake and its continuing aftershocks, people in the region have been sleeping outside their houses, many of which had developed cracks and become vulnerable. UNI
No respite from quakes for Chamoli residents The Times of India News Service (April 8, 1999) DEHRA DUN:Yet another tremor was experienced in the quake-affected Rudrapryag and Chamoli districts at around 1.10 am on Wednesday leading to panic. However, no loss of life or property was reported from any part of the two districts. Several minor tremors have been experienced in the area after it was rocked by a big quake last week which claimed more than 100 lives and rendered thousands homeless. Garhwal divisional commissioner V.M. Vora told The Times Of India News Service telephonically on Wednesday afternoon that following the latest tremors, some water pipelines had been damaged by the heavy boulders.``However, water supply has been restored now,'' he added. On the other hand, unofficial sources claimed that some roads in the hilly region have again been blocked by falling debris in the wake of the latest tremors. Meanwhile, relief work which was progressing slowly earlier,is reported to have picked up substantially, according to Mr Vora. A team, led by UP vidhan parishad chairman Nityanand Swami, is presently touring the area to oversee the disbursal of relief material. Mr Swami has been asked by chief minister Kalyan Singh to personally supervise the disbursal of relief and submit a report to the government in a day or two. This was done in view of the growing dissatisfaction among the quake victims. Mr Vora said a sum of Rs 2.60 crore had been disbursed among the quake victims in Chamoli and Rs 45 lakh in Rudraprayag. He said of the 1,256 severely-affected villages in Chamoli district, some 900 had been provided relief till now. Similarly, some 200 villages in Rudrprayag district had been covered by relief teams. The water crisis in the affected areas, too, is said to have been resolved to a large extent. General manager of Garhwal Jal Santhan H.P. Uniyal said on the telephone that some 306 water schemes had been damaged in the affected areas but a majority had been restored. There has been resentment in various quarters over the disbursal of relief with the BJP and Congress workers levelling charges against each other. The two parties are the main rivals in the Uttarakhand region. Congress president Sonia Gandhi's visit to the two districts even as quake-victims were openly agitating in Chamoli might prove to be a shot in the arm for Congress workers.
More landslides, floods await Chamoli Karnprayag, April 6 (HT Correspondent) At the Purana Bazar road in Nandprayag which was earlier used by devotees to go to Badrinath by foot, the face of a lion carved out of a stone serves as a natural tap for an underground stream. Earlier a thin stream of water used to flow from the tap. After the eartquake, the flow of water has suddenly become very fast. "This could mean that the fissure under the ground has widened. This could mean serious trouble for the people over here during rainfalls," said Dr J.P. Vaishnava, a resident of Nandparyag. He predicts that the rainfall may bring landslides and flood with the intensity which hit the area in 1971. And going by the look of fissures on the land near Mandal and landslides triggered by earthquakes, the other villagers only hope that Dr Vaishnava is not right in his prediction. In the hills of Garhwal both human beings and animals depend solely on nature. And nature has posed a queer problem for both of them this year. On one hand there has been no rainfall for last five months. This threatens the wheat and rice crops in the area. "The harvest of wheat crops is due by the end of the month. Moreover rainfall will also facilitate the sowing of rice crops. In some areas where the crops are totally dependent on rainfall, they will suffer if there is no rain in next few days," said Ram Prasad Uniyal, pradhan of Pursari village. On the other hand, people who have gone through one earthquake of March 28, are dreading that in case there is rainfall it will wash away their lives. After the earthquake, fissures have appeared on land and most of the houses that have been built with mud and stone have been loosened. "One rainfall and all these houses will collapse and cause landslides. In fact, for the first time there have been landslides without rain. These land slides were triggered off by the earthquake near Mandal on Pokhri road,"said DP Shaily, an employee of Himalaya Pariyavaran Adhyan Vibhag (HPAV), an NGO. Rainfalls in the near future if any will also bring with it another problem. Most of the people whose houses developed cracks in the earthquake are sleeping in the open in fear of another quake. Already the local hospital in Chamoli is full of cases of diarrohea and cough and cold. "Mostly we are receiving complaints of severe cold and cough," said Dr RN Saha, chief medical superintendent . Residents of the area fear that in case there is rain they would be rendered helpless since tents and tarpaulins have been distributed only to villages along the main road. Sleeping out in the open also poses another problem for the villagers.
Noxious fumes in Garhwal village cause a stir Madhukar Kumar (Gaurpuonga (Rudraprayag), April 6) Even by the standard of a slow pace of life of the people here, news travels very fast. And the news of noxious fumes coming out of a crevice formed due to the earthquake at Gaurpuonga village has created a stir among the people here. District administration officials claim that no fumes were coming out from this crevice but the ten-odd families of this village have been ordered to evict their homes. This village is situated about 12 kms from Chandrapuri at a height of 7,500 ft. There is no direct road to the village and the nearest village, Karnsili, is connected by a single non-metallic road known as Keonja Kandli road. The journey from Chandrapuri to Kandli takes about one-and-a-half hours even though the distance is about 8 kms. At Karnsili village where relief operations are trickling in due to almost non-accessible roads one has to stop there and after taking a local guide trek about 4 kms to reach Gaurpuonga village which has suddenly shot into the limelight. The trek towards the village takes another one-and-a-half hours since the climb is almost vertical at places. Just before the village a small road leading to the neighbouring village has been closed owing to landslides and one has to precariously cross the huge mound of rubble on the road to reach Gaurpuonga. In the village though there are ten families only four big houses mark it from the surrounding villages. One of the houses belongs to Bachan Singh. A crevice, about 16 inches wide and 1 km long, starts off a little below the village and goes right through his house. It goes further up the hill before bifurcating. Belying claims of the district administration officials, Mahavir Singh, a resident said "Soon after the quake a crevice appeared and hot steam started coming out of the crevice in several places, On observation it appeared that the fumes were coming out with a lot of pressure."
REDIFF -- April 5, 1999 The recent earthquake in the Garhwal Himalayas, which killed over 100 people and left many injured and homeless, has brought to the fore larger issues which the central and state governments need to address in the long-term for the people of the region. Though the region sits on the main central thrust -- one of the two faultlines across the entire Himalayan stretch, making it highly quake-prone -- almost none of the houses in the villages are quake-resistant. The indigent hill people remain in dire need of aid for building new structures as they are not in a position to even repair the damage caused by the recent quake. The government has asked the Housing and Urban Development Corporation to open an office in the region to provide loans to them - a step, people in the devastated Chamoli town feel, should have been taken much earlier. A tragedy waits to unfold in the region as the quake has shaken the foundation of many houses which, the villagers feel, will collapse in the event of rains. The entire affected area has also become prone to landslides, which could be triggered by rains. Sporadic drizzles on Thursday and Friday sent shivers down the spines of the people who still dread to sleep in their 'now fragile' houses. ''Lord save us all. The first drops of rains warn me that the worst is yet to come,'' said Kamleshwari Maithani of Pipalkoti town, about 50 kilometres from Chamoli. Roorkee University experts have warned that the damaged houses were unfit for habitation as they could cave in anytime. The plight of those like Kamleswari goes unnoticed as the officials in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts are still preoccupied in providing relief to the families which suffered casualties or were rendered roofless. The tents being provided by the administration to the affected is an apology for shelter. The government needs to formulate a long-term disaster management plan to minimise damage in such eventualities in this vulnerable region, say social activists. Most of the victims of last August's landslides in Rudraprayag district, which claimed more than 60 lives, are still in search of a secure shelter. ''After a few months, everybody will forget the disaster and nothing will be done to minimise damage in future,'' said Dr R N Dubey, an earthquake expert from the Roorkee University, which has sent a three-member team to assess the damage and make recommendations for future construction. Quake expert, Dr D C Roy and seismologist, Dr M L Sharma are the other members of the team. Incidentally, the university had recommended the construction of such houses after the Uttarkashi quake of 1991. However, the recommendations have been consigned to the state archives. The Centre yesterday decided to set up a task force to survey the damage in the region and recommend quake-resistant house designs. ''Houses in the region should be constructed on the lines of those in Latur,'' Dr Roy suggested. The Roorkee team insisted that the guidelines of the Indian Society for Earthquake Technology and the Bureau of Indian Standards for both 'engineered' and 'non-engineered' structures were followed. ''Quake-resistant material will add only 6-8 per cent to the cost of construction and it should be made mandatory through a legislation,'' Dr Dubey felt. This was echoed by Garhwal University Vice-Chancellor, Professor S Saklani who said a cell should be set up to ensure that houses are constructed as per the guidelines. UNI
Quake collapses will be soon forgotten, say experts REDIFF -- April 5, 1999 The recent earthquake in the Garhwal Himalayas, which claimed over 100 people and left many injured and homeless, has brought to the fore larger issues which the central and state governments need to address. Though the region sits on the main central thrust, one of the two fault lines across the Himalayas, making it highly quake-prone, almost none of the houses in the villages is quake-resistant. "After a few months, everybody will forget the disaster and nothing will be done to minimise damage through house collapses in future,'' said Dr R N Dubey, quake engineer from Roorkee University, which has sent a three-member team to assess the damages and make recommendations for future construction. Engineer Dr D C Roy and seismologist Dr M L Sharma are the other members of the team. The university had recommended construction of such houses even after the Uttarkashi quake of 1991. However, the recommendations were not acted upon. The Centre yesterday decided to set up a task force to survey the damages in the region and recommend quake-resistant house designs. "Houses in the region should be constructed on the lines of that in the post-1993 quake in Latur," Roy suggested. The Roorkee team insisted that the guidelines of the Indian Society for Earthquake Technology and the Bureau of Indian Standards for both 'engineered' and 'non-engineered' structures are followed. "The quake-resistant material will add only 6-8 per cent to the cost of construction and it should be made mandatory through legislation," said Dr Dubey. This view was echoed by Garhwal University vice-chancellor Prof P S Saklani, who said a cell should be formed to ensure that houses are constructed according to the specifications given for quake-prone areas. The indigent hill people remain in dire need of aid to build new structures since they find themselves unable to even repair damages caused by the quake. The government has asked HUDCO to open an office in the area to provide loans. People in this devastated town feel this step should have been taken much earlier. The quake has shaken the foundation of many houses which, the villagers feel, will collapse in the rains. The entire affected area has also become prone to landslides, which could be triggered by rains. Sporadic drizzles on Thursday and Friday sent shivers down the spines of the people who still dread to sleep in their houses. "The first drops of rains warn me that the worst is yet to come," said Kamleshwari Maithani of Pipalkoti town. The Roorkee University experts warned that the damaged houses were unfit for habitation as they could cave in at any time. The plight of those like Kamleswari goes unnoticed as officials in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts are still preoccupied with providing relief to the families that lost members or were rendered homeless. The tents and tarpaulins being provided by the administration to the affected are not of much use. Social activists calls for a long-term disaster management plan to minimise damages if an earthquake hits. Most victims of last August's landslides in Ukhimath in Rudraprayag district, which claimed more than 60 lives, are still in search of a secure shelter. Social activists are harping on the need for greater community participation in reconstruction work. The short-staffed administration has already roped in teachers for relief work in Rudraprayag district. "People should also come forward and get involved in rehabilitation work," Admiral S K Dwiwedi said. Debi Prasad, former block pramukh of the Nagnath-Pokhri area, said the government could not reconstruct all the houses damaged in the block. In Gopeshwar, Kiran Purohit, who co-ordinates the activities of a collective of voluntary agencies in the district, said touch and go relief measures would be of little help. "We hope every institution has learnt lessons from the quake,'' said ITBP Director-General Gautam Kaul, who stressed the need to evolve an elaborate disaster management plan. The dwindling forest cover on the mountains is also a matter of concern for environmentalists, who said this could disturb the ecological balance in the region, besides accentuating the problem of landslides. They called for stringent measures against the "forest mafia", mainly responsible for these fires. One could see fires raging on the mountains all along the route from Srinagar to Gopeshwar.
Rain will spell more disaster in UP hills Rudraprayag, April 3 (Gaurav Kala - Hindustan Times) A chilling picture has started to emerge as Army and paramilitary units, returning from their survey mission to remote villages started filing assessment report today. But for a few, hundreds of villages surveyed so far have reported severe structural damage to their buildings. Not only houses but community buildings like schools, which were also traditional safe shelters during calamities, cowsheds and outhouses have been reported destroyed or too dangerous to live in. To make matters worse, the sky remained overcast and light drizzles were reported from few places. Frightened eyes turned skyward as dark clouds congregated over the earthquake affected areas in and around this town. Rains would spell disaster for most of the people, whose lives have barely started to inch its way towards normalcy a week after the earthquake. "If it rains heavily, all of what we managed to salvage will also be destroyed," villagers with their hearts in their mouths said when the area had a light drizzle this afternoon. But mercifully, the drizzle did not intensify. However, reports predict that it is only a matter of time before rains unleashed more devastation. "At most, the administration has about three months to get their acts together and prepare for the rains," said Dr. Anil Joshi, head of Himalyan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO). "Let alone rains bringing houses down, there is a very real possibility of landslides." His organisation has been working in the Garhwal hills for the last two decades. Experts who have sounded similar warnings have based their prediction on water seeping down large fissures that have reportedly occurred along several mountains during the earthquake, sunshine will contract it, in the process loosening the affected mountains' face. If this process is repeated several times, there is every possibility of the mountains face becoming loose. But villagers and many social workers in the area are not pinning their hopes for help on the administration. "Every year or so, we see calamity in the hills. It can be an earthquake, a landslide or a forest fire but still no one has come up with a disaster management plans for the hills," says Satish Sati of Bhartiya Gram Uthan Sanasthan. "One can gauge the administration's apathy from the fact that in this terrain, where land communication lines are prone to damage during a calamity, they have not yet acquired sufficient number of wireless sets. The lack of communication between remote villages and towns is amply reflected by the fact that the Army and para military organisations had to be called in to assess the damage and distribute aid. There are still some remote villages of which the administration has no news to date. While for the administration, the end of the tremors may well mean the end of the calamity, the villagers know that only tougher times lie ahead.
By R P Nailwal The Times of India News Service (April 3, 1999) GOPESWAR/CHAMOLI: VIPs making a beeline for the quake-hit areas of Garhwal are hampering relief work, already slow and inadequate. UP chief minister Kalyan Singh came on March 30; planning commission vice-chairman K C Pant and Union agriculture minister Som Pal on March 31; Sharad Pawar on Thursday and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday. That's four out of the five days since the region was rocked by an earthquake at 12:35 am on Monday. An official said on Friday, ``The VIP visits have disrupted the efforts to launch relief and rehabilitation efforts properly.'' Yet, so desperate are the victims for relief that they are ready to complain to anybody, even the VIPs who are partly responsible for the delay. Ramesh Chandra of Golta registered his complaint with Ms Gandhi on Friday. The common people are not impressed by these visits. Most believe the VIP visits do not ensure help to the victims. The general view among them is that ``these visits are customary, nothing much comes out of them.'' But on some odd occasions, such visits help, depending on how the tehsil administration reacts to VIP visits. A food camp suddenly appeared in Chamoli on Friday by the side of a road Ms Gandhi was to take. The largesse of free ``dal and mota chawal'' did benefit some of them. But some only. While Suppal Lal of nearby Talasi village could make it to the camp and eat, his 13-year-old son Gadru couldn't as he had lost a leg in the quake and couldn't walk. When Suppal Lal went to the tehslidar to petition for his son, he was shooed off. Talasi hasn't been visited by any relief worker. So it has had to go without any relief. Food is so scarce in some villages that even the old and the infirm try to get to the nearest camp. For example, hunger drove 85-year-old Swari Devi to defy her age and walk 10 km to the camp. Scores of villages haven't received any relief whatsoever. Some angry villagers even demonstrated before Sharad Pawar and K C Pant when they visited Chamoli. But their demonstrations were in vain. The situation is bad in villages outside Chamoli and Gopeswar towns. Peoplethere continue to fend for themselves, ignoring rain and in fear of leopards which are frequent visitors to these parts.
Quake-hit victims wait patiently for the much needed relief By R P Nailwal The Times of India News Service (April 2, 1999) GOPESWAR: Fourth mild tremor shook the sensitive Gopeswar area at 12.45 p.m. on Thursday evening, as the totally broken residents of Deva village, few miles from here, were awaiting for the relief, while explaining about the difficulties to a team of visitors. None of them from the relief disbursal wing of the state government, though they had nothing else to lose further in life. Apparently shaken, they began recounting their tale of woes. Among the most interesting and heart rendering case appeared to be that of Jaipal Singh, a 45-year-old villager. Afflicted with chill penury, the poor man is living with four members of his family, including children in his cow shed, even after his house was demolished in 1991 quake. He did not receive any aids from anyone, though the government agencies made tall claim about relief and rehabilitation, in the wake of the quake disaster of 1991. This time also his cow shed, where he was passing his time, has also developed cracks. ``Dashi Devi is another frail looking old widow who is facing the worst that was in store for her in the life. She has four grand daughters to feed. She has lost her husband, her only son and now her house too. ``Till now, some villagers use to take pity on me and gave something to eat now what will I do where will I go from here? she asked while tears roll down from her cheeks. She pleads for help with folded hands. A majority of the villagers in Devar have stories to tell, that cut across the heart. Their houses were brutally mutilated by nature's fury. Bhagwan Das (50) has to feed nine members of his family, while he has nothing now and he feels high and dry. Kirpal Singh and Bachhan Singh, two brothers, having three infants in the family, do not have anything but scanty mother's milk to offer to the new comers to this world. None of the highly depressed penniless hungry looking and exhausted villagers in the severely affected areas such as Kharoda, Ghigrana, Roli and Devar has so far got any kind of relief whatsoever it means. This is the fourth day of the tragedy and the people are in a fit of anger, discussing the lethargy of the government to undertake quick relief measures, even though tall claims are being made on that account. But the official here insist that the relief was on his way. On Tuesday, a senior official of the district administration had emphatically said that the relief was being systematically disbursed. However, on Tursday only a few army men could be seen enrolling people's names for preparing their ration cards. This is the situation where most of the quake-hit victims are passing their nights at under open skies indefinitely waiting for help which is not forthcoming. In Ghagrana village, which basically comprises of scheduled castes and tribes, some 11 Harijan families are really living in such shabby conditions which defies description. One sees toddler crying with hunger for milk. While poor helpless uneducated and downtrodden victims of nature, look sideways in a bid to refuse to acknowledge their offspring presence. ``Sir do something for us,'' pleads Pushkar Lal, who had received serious head injuries and has also lost one of his hands. He is sitting under the sky with grief rich large on his face. His other fellow sufferers are Jaspal Lal, Raju Lal, Amarti Devi, Lakhi Lal and others. All of them have lost their houses totally in toto as future looks bleak for them. A majority of the panic-stricken villagers also constantly complain about the routine rounds of leopards to the affected villages in the dead of the night.
Sonia to visit quake-hit areas in UP The Times of India News Service (April 2, 1999) NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi will visit the earthquake affected areas of Garhwal division of Uttar Pradesh on Friday and supervise relief works undertaken by the party. Party spokesperson Girija Vyas told reporters here on Thursday that AICC central relief committee has already drawn up relief plans and appealed to people and various organisations to come forward for helping the victims. Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Salman Khursheed, who visited the affected areas on Wednesday, said a relief centre had been set up at Dehra Dun from where party volunteers would provide medicines, clothes, food articles and other necessary things to the quake victims in Chamoli and other areas. Commenting on the new exim policy announced on Wednesday by commerce minister R.K. Hegde, Ms Vyas said it was a ``feeble'' attempt to correct the negative export growth. She said the new policy was nothing but ``ritual'' as the export performance was dismal.
Himalayan Earthquake Relief Hampered by Remoteness, Lack of Headlines Posted on Fri, 02 Apr 1999 00:55:16 GMT Written by Stephanie Kriner, Staff Writer, DisasterRelief.org While most of the world's attention has been focused on the war in Kosovo, a forgotten disaster continues to unfold in the remote Himalayan foothills of northern India, where a powerful earthquake recently buried dozens of villages and killed at least 110 people. Night after night, residents huddle in fear, unable to sleep as powerful aftershocks rumble across the area. Each shake of the earth dislodges more boulders, which thunder down the immense mountainsides and crash to the valleys below. The March 29 earthquake destroyed at least 750 homes. Indeed, even as relief and government workers struggle to pick up the pieces and tend to the hungry and injured, the aftershocks deliver more destruction, death and injuries. Authorities say the aftershocks have led to at least 50 additional injuries and one death since the March 29 temblor. This "forgotten" disaster also has been exacerbated by the inability of rescue and relief agencies to reach the area, which has been cut off by massive landslides caused by the earthquake. The magnitude-6.8 temblor flattened 14 villages in Uttar Pradesh state, killed at least 110 people and injured 300 others. Badly damaged homes have been finished off by subsequent quakes, forcing residents to sleep outside. Three days after the earthquake, many victims still have received no medical attention, food, water or shelter. Associated Press journalists were the first to reach four remote villages, where residents pleaded for help. As a result of the long delays, local media have picked up stories of residents complaining about the wait. People from distant villages have walked several miles to Chamoli and other towns along the few paved roads to beg for food, medicine and tents. One woman from the Birahi valley told The Times of India that almost all the houses in her village were destroyed, cattle were dead and people were injured; yet no help had arrived. Medical teams park along the roads as close to the villages as they can get. Villagers from deep in the mountains walk to the roads for treatment or carry others across narrow mountain tracks on stretchers. The region is known for its high seismicity, and has been the site of many earthquakes. In Gopeshwar, a town of several hundred families, most people sleep in the streets, playgrounds and even on an army helipad, listening in terror as the trembling earth releases more boulders from the hilltops and sends them crashing down the slopes. Frightened leopards and other animals have strayed into the villages to escape the falling rocks and landslides, adding to the fears of villagers. The leopard has a local reputation as a man-eater in India. At least one girl in the earthquake-stricken region has been killed by a leopard, according to the Press Trust of India. Amidst the turmoil and in response to criticism, the government has geared up its relief operation. Chamoli's district administration has asked for an additional 1,000 Indo-Tibetan Border Police to facilitate the relief process. Army teams are being air dropped into inaccessible villages to coordinate aid efforts. Nearly 1.3 tons of emergency food supplies have been air dropped into isolated areas by army helicopters and plans are under way to deliver 1,000 tents. Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, the highest elected offical in Uttar Pradesh, has asked the federal government for $70 million in emergency funds. The relief work is not going as fast as I want," said Singh. "We don't have the money. We are a cash-starved state." A relief convoy of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has delivered tarpaulins, blankets, kitchen utensils, cooking oil, rice and clothing. "We have identified a target group of around 2,500 people who are in serious need of help and we'll be sending another seven or eight loads during the week," said Geoffrey Dennis, head of the IFRC delegation in India. The Indian Red Cross has asked IFRC for $95,000 to finance further efforts.
REDIFF -- April 1, 1999 Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow After days of terror, the residents of Uttar Pradesh's Garhwal had some respite. Last night, for the first time since the Chamoli quake, they stopped waiting for their world to come crashing down around them -- the incessant tremors, plaguing them since March 29, ceased. Meanwhile, with two more of the injured succumbing to injuries in Chamoli late Wednesday night, the death toll has gone up to 103. Superintendent of Police Sridhar Pathak said there was no loss of life or property in the second major quake that rocked the district in the wee hours of Wednesday. Officials in Lucknow, however, who had maintained the toll at 101 until Wednesday morning, reverted to 96 by evening. Explaining this, Chief Secretary Yogendra Narain told Rediff On The NeT, "Apparently there was an error in the initial headcount. Five deaths reported from the neighbouring Tehri district had been wrongly added to the Chamoli toll." "The total toll as of now remains at 98, which includes 58 in Chamoli, 34 in Rudraprayag and 6 in Tohri," he added. He said an area of about 1000 square kilometres was hit by the first quake measuring 6.8 on the Ritcher scale. However, owing to the area's scattered population and the 30 km depth of the epicentre, the damage was not as grave as it was in the 1991 quake in Uttarkashi. Then, as many as 493 human lives were lost. Referring to the breakdown of water supply in Chamoli where the main pipeline was cut off from the natural spring that is its only source of drinking water, the chief secretary said, "We have made special arrangements to ensure water from districts as far as Dehradun," he said. The electric supply had been restored and breaches on the main roads repaired, he added. Meanwhile, State Chief Minister Kalyan Singh suspended Garhwal Civil Divisional Commissioner B M Vohra for "gross negligence and dereliction of duty in handling the disaster."
Experts concerned over second quake in Garhwal Date: 01-04-1999 :: Pg: 08 :: Col: e By P. Sunderarajan NEW DELHI, March 31 (The Hindu) Earthquake experts at the India Meteorological Department here have expressed deep concern over the second tremor in the Garhwal region of Uttar Pradesh in the wee hours of today. The development, according to them, did not portend well. Their fear is based on the fact that the epicentre of the second earthquake was a good 50 km away from that of the Sunday night quake. In other words, it could not be treated as part of the after-shocks that have been continuously emanating from the site of the Sunday night tremor and which were expected, considering that it was quite a powerful quake, registering 6.8 on the Richter scale. On the contrary, the tremor on Wednesday meant that seismic activity was possibly spreading to new areas and that perhaps there could be more earthquakes in the near future in the region. The experts are all the more worried as the tremor was also not a minor one - it registered 5.2 on the Richter scale. Till last evening, the situation appeared to be slowly stabilising, but the quake this morning has changed all that, they added. Meanwhile, the Department of Science and Technology has set up a high-level experts group headed by the Director General of IMD, Dr. R. R. Kelkar, and consisting of Directors of the National Geophysical Research Institute, the Geological Survey of India, the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and other such institutions to go into all the aspects of the new spurt of seismic activity in the Himalayas, in particular in the Garhwal region, and recommend corrective measures. The department is also gearing to initiate steps to tighten enforcement of building codes to ensure that anti-earthquake measures were incorporated during the construction of houses and buildings. The main aim of the exercise is to ensure that while it may not be possible to predict earthquakes, much less prevent it, steps should at least be taken to reduce the level of casualty, as and when the earth shakes. As seismic experts put it, earthquakes on their own do not cause loss of life. Deaths mainly occur because of collapsing of buildings as a result of the tremors.
By R.P. Nailwal The Times of India News Service (April 1, 1999) CHAMOLI\GOPESWAR: For Darshan Devi of Burali village, the quake has changed its meaning literally overnight, she can no longer share the assurances of life with the central Himalayan bounty of nature any more, as she had been doing for the past 65 springs. Fragile poor village widow, lost everything that she had in terms of belongings and relations on Wednesday afternoon. She came all the way to the office of the sub-divisional magistrate Chamoli from Burali village, with her three minor grand daughters and widowed daughter-in-law, Bali, from Burali, 18 km from here. Hungry, tired and totally dishevelled like many other villagers, who can be seen bedraggled in a file, waiting outside the tiny courtyard of the office of the SDM, Darshani, a harijan, is hardly able to utter few words, when asked about her tales of woe, before she begins to speak, her pent up excitement burst forth. ``What to say sir, I have nothing to look forward now ...my house is raised to the ground, and my belongings buried there. We are living under the open skies for the past three days hungry and sick. Somehow, I managed to bring my daughter-in-law and daughter to this place in the hope. Choked with emotions, she has no male member in the family, as her husband and only son died long ago. She gets some paltry financial help immediately on being taken to additional magistrate Arun Dhondiyal, who happens to be in the SDM's office at that time. Rugubir Singh, 40, of Kandakudket village is full of anger, like many other hundreds of villagers, who have been making their weary way into the office of the SDM, complains that barring two sheets of tarpaulin material and cheap carpets, they had got nothing. Many of them were indeed seen carrying these materials on their heads. Mangal Singh Garia, 60, hailing from worst-affected Birahi valley on way to Badrinath temple, complains that 90 per cent of the houses are totally damaged, cattle perished, some persons injured. ``No one has come to the village from the administration so far,'' he said. Tension, fear and uncertainty, marked the life of the hill people for the past 48 hours. They are all sleeping outside fearful of unknown. They are even prepared to brave the threat posed by leopards that prowl in the dead of the night, looking for the next victim.
Fresh tremor hits quake-hit area By R P Nailwal The Times of India News Service and Agencies (April 1, 1999) CHAMOLI/GOPESWAR: While the poor panic-stricken quake victims file past the sub-divisional magistrate's office in this small township, badly damaged by Sunday night's quake, in the hope of getting some help the administration can offer at this juncture, more major and minor quakes continue to rattle the twin towns. At least 50 people were injured in Chamoli district on Wednesday as a fresh tremor hit the area, still recovering from Sunday night's devastating earthquake that killed more than 100 people and left over 300 injured. The tremor measuring 5.0 on the Richter Scale with its epicentre between Rudranath and Gopeshwar, struck at 2.32 a.m. and lasted a few seconds. The injured have been admitted to a make-shift hospital of the Indian Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) which along with the Army and other para-military forces is engaged in relief and rescue operations, ITBP sources said. There were also reports of people being injured in Rudraprayag district, but details of the extent of damage and casualty were yet to be received. According to preliminary reports some of the houses that developed cracks in the first quake have been badly damaged in the fresh quake. ``The occurrence of the tremor of this intensity after the major quake with 6.8 magnitude in the region could be a freak phenomenon and this unusual development is being studied,'' Prof. V.S. Rama Murthy, secretary, department of science and technology. Prof. Murthy said that this unusual development may signify continuity of stress at more than one place with an independent source in the ``Himalayan fault'' which was identified as the most seismic prone as it had experienced at least a dozen such quakes with magnitude of over six on the Richter Scale during the past century. In the Mandal Valley, the Army has speeded up relief work in 30-35 villages currently cut off from the rest of Chamoli district. Para-military forces, the Red Cross Society and the Army were still trying to reach distant areas which had so far remained inaccessible to government officials engaged in relief work as also the media. Air Force helicopters on Wednesday afternoon dropped food packets in some villages near Gopeswar, as the search for more bodies continued for the third day. Meanwhile, survivors are facing danger from leopards, who, frightened out of forests by crashing boulders, have been sighted not far from the emergency relief camps. A girl was killed by a leopard near Pipalkoti township, 15 kms from Chamoli, residents said. People seem to be, by and large, unhappy with the relief provided to them so far. Local leaders are blaming the administration for not bothering about the people's plight. Some fear that there may be some bungling in the disbursal of compensation to the victims. ``We will take up the matter with UP Congress president Salman Khursheed, who is arriving here later Wednesday afternoon,'' said A.P. Maikhuri of the Congress. Meanwhile, rumours are afloat in the two towns and adjoining villages that a big quake can hit the region once again. In Gopeswar there is an acute water crisis and people can be seen standing in long queues for collecting water from taps in different parts of the town. A number of women and girls could been seen squatting on the courtyard of the sixth century Shiva temple in Gopeswar village, praying to God for mercy. Villagers at Chamoli complained about what they termed ``total apathy'' towards the quake victims, especially in the far-flung villages. ``We are doing whatever we can within our limitations,'' said Arun Dhondiyal, additional district magistrate of Chamoli district, who is supervising the relief operations at Chamoli. Asked about the people's complaints, he said the pace of relief work would be geared up soon. Even while the people continue to sit outside their houses, fearing a fresh jolt any time, central teams led by vice-chairman of the Planning Commission and chairman of the committee on natural disasters K.C. Pant, arrived here, along with Union minister of state for agriculture Sompal Shastri. He told reporters at Gopeswar helipad that quake-resistant houses would be built in the sensitive quake-prone areas in the central Himalayan region. He also had a brief meeting with noted environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt, who is based at Gopeswar, and emphasised the need for NGOs' participation in the reconstruction and rehabilitation work. A team of Army Signal Corps is working on restoring the communication network. Hotlines have already been laid linking Chamoli to Joshimath and Kausani to Bareilly. In a classic case of lack of communication between various government agencies, a class 10 Board examination was held in Gopeshwar on Wednesday morning despite official announcement of the postponement of all Board exams in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts. The examination was held as the school had not received the district administration order on time and it reached the school only after the students had finished writing the paper, G S Rawat, a teacher at government inter college here said. Lack of communication led to hundreds of students reporting for exams at different centres, students said. When contacted, district authorities said the delay was due to the late arrival of orders from the headquarters despite chief minister Kalyan Singh's announcement postponing all examinations in the quake-hit districts.
India's Earthquake Victims Mourn the Dead as the Clean-Up Effort Begins Posted on Wed, 31 Mar 1999 13:59:39 GMT Written by Stephanie Kriner, Staff Writer, DisasterRelief.org As the death toll rose, survivors of the earthquake that rocked India's Himalayan foothills March 29 began their long mourning process this week. The powerful 6.8 magnitude quake and its aftershocks left 110 dead, close to 300 injured and destroyed 750 homes in the northern region of Uttar Pradesh. The earthquake flattened 14 villages and destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the homes in Chamoli, the site of the earthquake's epicenter. But the complete extent of losses remained unclear as rescue workers attempted to reach the region's most isolated areas. First they had to clear roads, which remained buried in boulders and debris. But the psychological trauma could take years to recover from. "It's a real shock for everybody in the area," he said. The latest earthquake serves as just one of many reminders that this farming community is dangerously situated in one of the earth's youngest mountain ranges. The growing peaks will continue to pose problems because of deforestation and neglect, environmentalists say. Last year dozens of landslides swept the area, wiping out a camp of Hindu pilgrims and killing more than 250 people. The most recent earthquake was the second biggest to strike the region in nine years. A total of eight earthquakes measuring more than 6 on the Richter Scale have hit in the last century. India's most lethal recent earthquake killed nearly 10,000 people in the western part of the country in 1993. Its most powerful quake struck Assam in eastern India in 1950, measuring 8.5 magnitude.
Another quake in Garhwal, 50 hurt Chamoli, March 31 (Harish Chandola - Hindustan Times) An immense feeling of insecurity continued to prevail in upper Garhwal hills after the recurrence of strong tremors over the last 24 hours. Joshimath and other parts of Chamoli district shuddered from four shocks of severe intensity that peaked at 5 on the Richter. The tremors began around 6.30 a.m yesterday. There were milder tremors too thereafter. At 2.35 am today a powerful tremor rocked Joshimath, Chamoli and hills around. It was followed by another tremor 20 minutes later. (PTI said 50 persons were reportedly hurt.) Thousands of traumatised people in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts spent a third night in the open, afraid that their damaged houses might collapse on them from jolts that do not seem to end. The death toll has gone up, with three of the Monday morning's injured succumbing and report of deaths reaching towns from remote, inaccessible villages and hamlets. Casualty figures from areas accessible so far have not been very high primarily because the population in these parts is sparse and scattered. Several hundred buffaloes and cows remain trapped or dead in collapsed cattle-sheds. There is a strong feeling here that the authorities, to minimise panic, are trying to play down the severity of the tremors that followed the first one (that was 6.8 on the Richter). One of the tremors yesterday measured 4.5 on the Richter. Last night's shocks resulted in the collapse of the stone-slate roof of a house in Parsari village, close to my home. Several of my walls developed cracks. Though the UP Chief Minister had announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for the death of an earning member of a family, Rs 50,000 for a non-earning one and Rs 25,000 for rebuilding a damaged house, only Rs 10,000 was being given to the kin of the dead in Chamoli. The Prime Minister too has announced an additional compensation of Rs 1 lakh for the death of an earning person, Rs 50,000 for a non-earning one, and Rs 10,000 to each seriously injured person. Twelve hours after the first quake, about 100 Garhwal Scouts, the same number of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, and some from the Special Security Bureau (SSB) were pressed into relief work. Armymen have been supplying drinking water to Gopeshwar residents. The Border Roads Organisation in less than 24 hours heroically cleared all the 15 landslides and showers of boulders that had blocked the Badrinath road between Nandprayag, the epicentre, and Birahi, 20 km up. It is now working on opening the blocked 15 km Gopeshwar-Mandal road. Army teams are also airdropping relief materials in distant and inaccessible villages, Col Prakash Tiwari of Garhwal Scouts said. Nearly 1280 kg of food items, including rice, atta and dal, has been airdropped in areas where relief could not be reached by other means, he said.
Quaking with fear, many residents prefer open sky Bhatwari Sunar, March 31 (Gaurav Kala - Hindustan Times) Life in this village has come to a grinding halt. With most of their houses either destroyed or simply too dangerous to live in following the earthquake, villagers have now been forced to live outdoors. Cots, clothes, quilts and whatever else could be retrieved from the rubble lies strewn around. Most of the villagers' belongings are still inside houses, but no one dares enter them as they are severely damaged and too dangerous to enter. Among the belongings sit shocked villagers in small groups discussing the night the earthquake hit the village. Among those who prefer solitude is Tajwar Singh Jangwal. He had lost his elder brother to illness in July last year. The earthquake claimed two more of his family. His two nieces, Vandama (16) and Kanchan (11) were killed when the roof of their second floor bedroom collapsed. The cracks on the walls and the caved-in roof bear testimony to the violence with which the structure was shaken by the earthquake. The village, which is home to about 70 families, has accepted the earthquake as a natural calamity which had to happen. What has however, angered the villagers is the apathetic attitude of the administration. "No one came here to help. A few area officials did come, they are the ones who put up the banners," said Sita Negi, the aunt of Vandama and Kanchan, while pointing towards a white banner proclaiming Bhatwari Sunar to be a relief camp. "Where is this supposed camp? These banners and these visits were only to soften us up before the Chief Minister's visit. Now that he has left so has the administration." With almost all the houses suffering structural damage the one thing the villagers now fear the most are the rains. "If it rains it will be the end for all of us," said Udai Singh Bhandari, a social worker who resides in a nearby village. "Not only will all our belongings, which are kept in the open be destroyed, all the houses still left standing will collapse. The rain water soaks through the cracks in the walls and leads to their expansion. Once the sun dries the walls they contract thus making them weaker... eventually leading to collapse." A bigger fear of residents here is that this might take place at a much larger scale and entire mountain may be brought down with the rain. "Large cracks have appeared all over the mountains in this area," said Dr Anil Joshi, of the Himalayan Environment Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), "There is a great chance of major landslides during these rains. Further, because there were little or no winter rains the rains this summer are expected to be heavier. The administration has about three months to react before a calamity even worse than the present one occurs." Despite the claims of the administration, villagers alleged that they have received little or no aid. "When I asked the area District Magistrate (DM) to provide us with shelters, he told me to get tents," claimed Gawar Singh Jangwal. "When I asked him where he expected me to find tents, he said I should rent them and later apply for reimbursement from the administration. "If I had the money to do something to lessen my family's suffering does he think I would have waited?" Jangwal said.
Chamoli, March 30 (Gaurav Kala - Hindustan Times) Fear continues to be all-pervading in this small hill town, almost 48 hours after an earthquake razed homes and buried alive many of its residents. Aftershocks measuring sub-4 on the Richter rumbled intermittently throughout today, heightening fears that the area could be hit again. Details of the magnitude of the devastation are only trickling in. But the official figure - 105 dead and more than four times that number injured - could swell greatly by the time the last body is extracted from the debris and the last missing person is accounted for. The tragedy yet again found the administration insufficiently equipped for swift crisis management. Much of the rescue operations were conducted by hundreds of shell-shocked survivors. However, by this afternoon, scores of ITBP and PAC men began helping the rescue effort. Unfortunately, the effort is restricted to towns and villages near the arterial road. Little is known about the situation in far flung villages. It was a lonely farewell for five men, two women and a child. Six of them were undertrial prisoners who died when their prison cells crumbled under the impact of the quake. The bodies of the woman and her child were brought in from an unnamed village early this morning. None of their relatives or friends were there at the cremation. Policemen and journalists, who either clicked away furiously or jotted down notes, were at hand when the pyres were lit. The bodies were extricated by men from the 8th batallion of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and local policemen. The were wrapped in white sheets, mounted on rickety cots and brought to the banks of the river Alaknanda. The policemen were the pall bearers and were followed by the journalists. With blood still oozing from some of the bodies, they were piled one on top of another, doused with kerosene and lit. Even in this 'devbhoomi,' or the Land of the Gods, there was no one to perform the last rites. Officially, 61 deaths were reported from Chamoli district alone, 31 from Rudraprayag district and five from Tehri district. Around 145 people have been rescued from the rubble in Chamoli district, officials said. Air Force helicopters dropped food packets over many of the badly-affected and far-flung villages throughout the day. Relief camps have been set up in Chamoli and Gopeshwar. Nineteen seriously injured persons are being treated at a local hospital because they are in no condition to be shifted immediately, officials said.
Hindustan Times (March 31, 1999) Though the official figures of the casualties caused by the massive earthquake that devastated large parts of north India in the early hours of Monday has been put at 85 dead and 130 wounded, the actual number is likely to be higher. The under-reporting of casualties, both dead and wounded, as well as the number of houses demolished or damaged was inevitable owing to the remoteness of many of the central Himalayan villages where the impact of the tremors was most severe. The earthquake had its epicentre in the Garhwal area which is relatively more prone to such disasters in view of its unstable geological nature. However, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, it could have resulted in a bigger tragedy had its epicentre been closer to the ground and not 30 km deep. That also explains the fact that the extent of damage to buildings was more compared to the human casualties. It is not just the quality of houses or building material that is important. Prescribing building norms for the hilly areas - as has been suggested - will mean yet another exercise on paper. The basic problem is that this region is among the most backward in an endemically backward state. The physical and economic infrastructure in the hilly districts is primitive and the vast majority of the people are extremely poor. Unless one takes a more comprehensive view of the problems of poverty, merely seeking to improve the quality of the houses to make them resistant to earthquakes can be another case of misspent resources. Monday's tragedy is also bound to focus attention on the Tehri dam controversy. After the Rudraprayag quake of 1991, this is the second major disaster in less than a decade. Both cases underlined the seismically vulnerable nature of the central Himalayan region, which is among the youngest mountain ranges in the world. As demanded by several academics and scientists, the government should consider ordering a fresh examination of the safety aspects of the dam by an independent team of experts. Monday's disaster should be regarded as a warning in this context, which should be heeded before it is too late.
Date: 31-03-1999 :: Pg: 12 :: Col: b (The Hindu) THE HUGE TOLL of lives - with more than 100 killed and well over 300 injured - taken by the devastating earthquake which rocked Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts in Uttar Pradesh is a grim demonstration of how this region remains vulnerable to the ravages of a natural disaster. The rest of the country - the Governments at the Centre and in the States as also voluntary relief organisations - should get down to the task of rushing relief to the stricken people in as many ways as it could. The Army and the Air Force, which have a record of providing the quickly-needed relief to the victims of natural calamities such as floods and earthquakes, have got down to the present task of a staggering magnitude. The destruction of as many as 90 per cent of the houses in Chamoli district and house collapses on a much larger scale project the tragedy in all its dreadfulness. The massive devastation makes it imperative that the relief operations be herculean since even with the best will in the world it would take several months before the surviving victims restart their lives with all the fortitude which this calls for while having to live with the lingering, painful memories of the dear ones lost and the houses which have been reduced to rubble. The ferocity of the earthquake could be seen from its having been felt even in far-away Pune. Earthquakes of varying intensity have been repeatedly causing extensive misery in Uttar Pradesh and the Himalayan region over the long stretch from Delhi to the remote areas of U.P. The Himalayan neighbourhood has been seismically alive because of an ``active fault'' (subterranean fissures) which runs through the Moradabad-Mathura region and adjoining territory. Of considerable geological interest here is that the region has been hit by landslips, one of which killed well over 200 at Malpa village in Pithorgarh district in August last. While the earthquake as a calamity is different from the landslip, both manifest themselves in the same arena which is the earth. The earthquakes result from tectonic movements activated by fault lines. The landslip is the sliding down of huge masses of land, becoming unsettled after torrential rainfall and floods. Emerging suddenly as a barrier on highways linking the far-flung areas of the country, the landslip rains tonnes of sand and rock on heavily-populated regions, leaving a huge death toll. The steadily growing knowledge of tectonic movements among geologists has made earthquake prediction possible, enabling quick evacuation of the residents from areas threatened by the anticipated catastrophe. The 2,400-km long Himalayan ``arc'' is known to be subject to an unceasing succession of disastrous, overthrusting subterranean movements erupting into recurring earthquakes. Every effort should be made by geologists and engineers to press into service the technology which is now available for making structures earthquake-resistant. Japan took the lead long ago. In the case of landslips, the sliding of sand and rock after their having become weak is directly attributable to the environmental vandalism in the destruction of forests. The once-hardy landscape, rendered wholly defenceless against the rush of rivers in spate because of the destruction of deep-rooted trees which could have braked them, can no longer ensure against recurring landslips. The cruel irony is that while the country's rain-starved regions are becoming parched, heavy rains wash away the rich topsoil elsewhere because of the ecological savagery.
A quake-hit town awaits relief Date: 31-03-1999 |