In sea of misery, help’s a trickle

In sea of misery, help’s a trickle
D V MAHESHWARI

BHUJ, JANUARY 27: The toll is rising by the hour and the relief work can't catch up. Across the devastated Kutch, there is grief mixed with terror ever since the earth shook for a few seconds on Friday morning and changed the landscape. The congested old, walled city of Bhuj and the towns of Anjar and Bhachau have been almost flattened. The number of villages which have been reduced to rubble run into hundreds.

Thousands have died, thousands still lie buried in debris, with relief and rescue operations yet to begin on a scale which could have some visible impact. Chased by aftershocks, thousands have fled to nearby districts in panic, carrying the injured with them as Kutch's biggest government hospital here has collapsed.

No figures of the dead or injured are available; there are only estimates, none of which is verifiable, given the magnitude of the tragedy, the disarray in the local administration and a complete breakdown of communications within the district. But there is unanimity on one point: no one here had seen this kind of a disaster before.

According to Tarachand Cheda, president of Sarva Seva Sangh, a prominent service organisation, ``at least 25,000 people have died''. A more conservative estimate puts the figure at 10,000. Gujarat Assembly Speaker Dhirubhai Shah says, ``The casualty figure is unimaginably high. This is the worst that has ever happened in the state.''

Shah, who flew in here last evening with a team of senior officers from Gandhinagar, said he had thought ``Kutch had suffered something like Ahmedabad'' and had, therefore, brought a team of only eight medical specialists. What he saw here shocked him and he has briefed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The intensity of the earthquake was particularly severe in eastern Kutch. On a 200-km drive through the area, all one saw was flattened villages, with thousands of helpless people camping by the roads with their women and children, waiting for some succour.

In Bhuj, which has a population of two lakh, more than 80 per cent houses have collapsed. The district remains cut off, with a satellite phone in the District Collector's office being the only dependable link with the outside world. There is no electricity in the entire district. Towns like Bhuj, Gandhidham and Anjar didn't get drinking water for the second day today.

The city's main hospital, G K Hospital, has collapsed. Local doctors started treating the injured at the Jubilee Grounds in the open this morning. The eight specialists brought by Shah could not do much in the absence of medical instruments. One doctor said most of the patients had orthopaedic problems. An orthopaedic surgeon said he had to amputate the leg of an old woman inside her home because there was no operation theatre.

Rescue workers are sifting through the sea of debris manually as they do not have equipment like gas cutters. The local Army units are helping, but they have their own problems -- many Army personnel have been injured in the cantonment.

The people of Bhuj spent last night in the open, braving the chilly weather. No one wanted to return to the houses which have developed big cracks. There was the fear of aftershocks, and also a very strong rumour of another quake within 24 hours. The poor went without food and drinking water.

Today, the local Swaminarayan Tample made arrangements for supplying food packets. Former Finance Minister Babubhai Meghji Shah contacted philanthrophist organisations in Mumbai on the satellite phone and requested for help. They have agreed to send one planeload of relief materials, including medicines, Shah said. Kutch has strong links with Mumbai which has a Kutchi population of one million.

Sources said the district administration had asked for two Army battalions, but the Centre had, on its own, decided to send much more in view of the magnitude of the tragedy. The administration had also asked for a minimum of 400 doctors in view of the very large number of injured persons.