M A I N   N E W S

9-year-old girl left all alone
Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service

Kangni (Manali), August 9
Unmindful of the catastrophe tat struck the labourers’ camp here, killing her parents and three siblings, nine-year-old Thulima, is busy playing with other children, not knowing that she has been left all alone in this world, far away from her home in Nepal.

“We have all shifted to the school premises here as our tents have been washed away due to heavy rains, but I do not know where my parents, brother and sisters are,” says Thulima, who has not been told about her entire family being killed in the cloudburst, which wiped off the camp at Kangni, near Solang Nallah, on Thursday night.

Thulima was saved from being washed away by the gushing waters as she had gone to stay with her maternal uncle, Babilama, in the adjoining labour camp near Fingri Nallah. “Thulima, used to stay with us on and off as she would take care of our one-year-old daughter, Sukhmai, when we used to go for work,” says a shocked Babilama.

“Once the bad weather is over I want to start going to the creche, where we are taught poems and given meals by the teachers engaged by the BRO,” says Thulima, who is unaware about the tragedy.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) officials, are already in touch with the local authorities to explore the possibility of shifting the girl to an orphanage. “We will keep the girl with her maternal uncle only if we are convinced that she will be taken care of, otherwise we will move her to the local orphanage. We have already spoken to the local administration in this regard,” informed Major Rakesh Godhoke, 21C 38 BRTF.

Thulima’s entire family, including her father Sanu Kancha (36), his wife Itamala (30), son Sarki (14) and daughters Saili (8) and Haili (5) were buried under the debris. All of them were cremated at the nearby Nehru Kund, yesterday.

“Amidst this confusion I have not even found time to inform Sanu’s parents and family in Gompathan, 130 km from Katbmandu, about the mishap,” says Bibilama. It was just two months back that Thulima’s family moved to Solang, where road construction work for the Rohtang tunnel, is being undertaken by the BRO.

“It all depends on Thulima, whether she wants to stay with her maternal uncle or would want to go back to her grandparents in Nepal,” says Mingmar, the labour incharge who brought 39 people from Nepal, with him. Terrified by the incident, most of the survivors like Sita and Shakar Kumar say they will no longer put up in the tents, where the gushing waters swept off everything right before their eyes, within seconds.

There are a few who are packing up their bags to leave for Nepal, Jharkhand and Bihar, as they are not willing to take any further chances. Meanwhile, the BRO has temporarily shifted all labourers and their families to the Manali Senior Secondary School, till their tents can be set up at a safer location, below the construction site.