Despite receiving relief materials and financial assistance worth billions from various individuals, organisations and countries across the world, rescue and relief efforts have largely remained ineffective in the absence of proper coordination among the concerned authorities and their lackluster response to the national tragedy.

Sindhupalchok and Gorkha

Almost a week after the quake, stifled cries for help of those trapped inside vehicles, heard for over three days, have died down. Owing to the lack of coordination in conducting relief and rescue works in Sindhupalchok, local authorities are yet to ascertain the number of people, including businessmen, pilgrims and tourists, missing since the disaster.

 A major business hub and popular tourist destination, scores of people were crushed or trapped inside vehicles coming into Sindhupalchok following the landslip triggered by the quake. The dead bodies of passengers who died after the jeep they were travelling in was crushed by the landfall still remains stuck inside the vehicle.

“We have not been able to retrieve the body of one of our own, let alone others,” said a source at the Area Police Office (APO), hinting towards the deceased head constable whose body is yet to be retrieved from the debris of the landslide.

The horrific sight of dead bodies that can be seen crushed under the rubble of houses and vehicles along the 26 km stretch from Barahbise to Tatopani of Araniko Highway remains the same till date. The landslides triggered by the quake has destroyed bordering Liping, Kodari and Tatopani bazaar. While Nepal Police and Armed Police Force personnel deployed at bordering village of Larcha have gone to safer areas, a number of bodies lay buried at the site and the local administration is yet to ascertain the death toll.

Meanwhile, VDC chairperson Amrit Kumar Khadka said that around 150 victims at Gombadanda have not even had water to drink since the last three days. Similarly, Police Inspector Manjil Mukarung at the APO, Barahbise said that the situation at the bordering areas was beyond description and that rescue personnel have not been able to reach the affected areas due to road blockades. “We are trying to clear the roads though,” Mukarung said.  

In Gorkha where the situation is no different, victims have not even been able to get their hands on the limited number of tents distributed in relief. “All our hard work since years turned to heap of rubble in minutes,” lamented teary eyed local Lila Khanal, 55, of Pokharidanda, Bunkot, who was found near a heap of rubble that used to be her house. As rescue personnel have just reached Bunkot, located just 12 km from the district headquarters and considered better in terms of infrastructural development in comparison to other VDCs, victims in other affected areas have been left in lurch. While the rain showers have posed a major hindrance in rescue operations in VDCs surrounding the district headquarters, VDC secretary Toyanath Amgain said that relief materials including 90 tents, 10 sacks of beaten rice, and 5 packets of noodles each have been distributed to the

victims.

Dolakha and Kavre

Due to stymied rescue operations, Diarrhoea has spread in various remote settlements in Dolakha as dead bodies of humans along with carcasses of livestock lie strewn virtually everywhere .

The district has become prone to the outbreak of Cholera, a diarrhoeal disease that has already spread at Alampu in the district since the past few days. Parshuram Mahato, the headmaster at a local school, told the Post that the disease gripped the settlement as the locals who survived the quake could not manage the bodies well.

According to Mahato, all 524 houses in the settlement have been demolished whereas some people have been buried under the rubble.

He said that victims have been living under the open sky on empty stomachs due to the lack of adequate government relief materials coming into the area.

Local authorities said they learnt about Alampu being on the verge of Cholera outbreak from Mahato who reached the district headquarters on the sixth day of the disaster. Alampu is about two-day walk from Charikot.

Meanwhile, a French rescue team has been dispatched in the area. After inspecting the area, DSP Ajaya KC said the settlement “is in a very pitiable condition.”

Alampu is just a case in point as hundreds of victims in several remote settlement are deprived of rescue and relief even on the sixth day of the calamity