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contours of calamity
A gut-wrenching aerial view
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What happened in Leh
Cabinet mourns deaths
Oil won’t be supplied to interiors of Valley
Venues for I-Day functions finalised
29 KAS officers transferred
20-kg IED recovered
Eve-teasing leads to clash
Hotel manager’s body found
Dogri film to be screened
Curfew in parts of Valley
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contours of calamity
Bollywood star Aamir Khan today finally managed to call up Prasad Eledath, principal of “Rancho’s School”, five days after the school made famous by the “3 Idiots” movie was destroyed due to the cloudburst in Leh.
The school principal told The Tribune team that Aamir Khan had offered all kind of help. “We are yet to make a proper evaluation of the damage caused and the funds required to reconstruct it. Aamir Khan has asked me to tell him what is required and it will be done. The telephone call came at 10 am today.” As one reaches the school, 25 km from the Leh crossing, a couple of rivulets, which have suddenly resurfaced, and several speed-breakers of mud, the first thing one notices is that it is not Rancho’s school. It is actually called Durk White Lotus School. “We are quite sensitive about the name of the school. True, the movie has made it world famous. About 25 to 75 tourists come here daily to see it where Aamir Khan (Rancho) and his students were inventing one thing after another and especially the wall where ‘Chaturlingam’ got electric shocks.” The school should be known by its original name, as it existed since 1999, much before Aamir Khan shot his film here, the principal insisted. The other thing that strikes you as you reach here is that the school has disappeared. It rather looks like an excavation site, with volunteers, students and staff all trying to clear mud from practically all rooms and the campus. At the very entrance of the school there lies one computer terminal, all covered in mud, as if telling what to expect in the building. Go further in; the computer lab having 40 computers is one big heap of mud, with only four computers visible. The condition of the first floor of the library is the same, so is the principal’s office and all classrooms. The pavement, the gardens, the floors, the walkways, all lie covered in several feet of mud. The school, which had won many awards like Best Green School, Best Earthquake Resistant Building, Best Education School and Best Asian Building, had taken care of fire, earthquakes, and practically every disaster they could think of. But, ironically, it had no idea about flash floods and cloudbursts. “We have to think about it now when we will reconstruct the school. There was a seasonal stream running down the hill in the rear of the school. It flowed a couple of hundreds of metres away from the school boundary but on that night, as the cloud burst, massive torrents of water and mud overwhelmed the school. “I was sleeping in my home situated close to the school when someone raised the alarm about the gushing water. As I along with hostel warden Kamal Thakur rushed to the school, we saw water and mud all around. The two dormitories of the girl’s hostel were rendered asunder by a violent stream of water that brought with it huge rocks and boulders. Thakur said as there was no power supply. “We switched on the headlights of a couple of cars and saw children perched on a wall. With great difficulty we made them jump into our laps and fortunately no one was injured.” Singay, a Class VI student, was so fear-stricken that it took her a lot of courage to jump over the wall to safety. The school founded by the 12th Gyalwanag Trukpa has 550 students with 55:45 ratio in favour of girls. Of the total strength 76 were present in the school today. The school started nursery and LKG classes in 2000. “Now, the highest class is the eighth standard,” the principal told. When will the school start functioning again? The principal has his fingers crossed. “I think Class VIII will start from Thursday, but it will depend on how many students attend classes. We are looking at restarting the school in phases,” he said. It would require huge funds and engineering to restore this special school to its earlier form. “We have no plan or need to shift it,” the principal said. The school imparts a unique blend of modern and traditional Buddhist education. |
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A gut-wrenching aerial view
The real impact of the flash floods and mudslides is visible from the sky. A horrifying picture of shattered roofs, wiped out villages, broken bridges, piles of slush and hundreds of smashed trucks and cars emerges. The picture from the sky is even more heartrending than what is visible on the ground.
The Tribune team boarded a chopper and flew on the Leh-Nimu axis, an area of 35-45 km, to get a better view of the destruction caused in the inaccessible valleys around Leh, areas that have so far evaded the attention and reach of the media and the civil administration as well. Long queues of trucks carrying supplies of food, fuel, clothing and construction material are visible on the crucial Leh-Kargil highway. The massive destruction between Phyang and Nimmu is gut wrenching. Houses that were three-storey are totally covered in mud. Almost 80 per cent of houses have been damaged, roofs blown away and people scampered off in fear. A small hamlet “Umlah” has vanished under the mud and not a single person, rescue workers or otherwise is seen. The Indus has breached its banks at several places and changed its course. Bridges have been washed away. The Army’s Corps of Engineers, in an amazing effort in the past 72 hours, has erected two of the seven bridges that were washed away. One at Phyang was opened today while the other at Nimu is expected to be up and operational in the next 24 hours. At Nimu, a large number of trucks and cars are stranded on the Leh-Kargil highway while a large number of oil tankers are stranded around the Pathar Sahib gurdwara, about 25 km from Leh. And then the gushing waters of the Indus fills minds with fear. The damage is in contrast to the scenic barren brown mountains and the green valleys. The portion of Leh city and the ravaged towns of Choglumsar and Saboo looks like a big slush-filled pond with bulldozers working furiously. The brown mountains near Leh have been scarred with mudslides that have changed the topography. The choppers of the IAF, Chetaahs and the Mi-17, “make a huge sound ferrying supplies to various inaccessible locations”. Yesterday, the IAF had carried out a record number of sorties to evacuate 81 foreign tourists stranded in the Zanskar valley. |
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The battered model village
After performing a daredevil balancing act on the wooden logs laid to cross the Saboo River, we sat on a small structure, only to get up with a start when my local guide revealed that before August 6, the ‘small structure’ was the rooftop of a two-storied house.
The quantum of the tragedy that struck Saboo village was clear to us that moment. As many as 14 persons died in the wee hours of August 6, as Saboo River, an otherwise small rivulet, went on rampage taking along several houses, burying houses under mud and rocks, and tossing cars and trees away, twisting them in mad fury. As we stood near the two-storey house, now reduced just to one or two feet above ground level, we looked upward and saw a steep slope of rock and sand. “Where is the village?” I asked. “It was here only. This slope was formed by the river,” said Tsewang Gailten, a Political Science lecturer and my local guide, pointing at the boulders and rocks. Underneath those, were the once vibrant streets and houses of Saboo village. This was the favourite village of former President Abdul Kalam Azad, who four years ago laid the foundation of developing it as the model village of Ladakh. It is the same village where all relatives of Survine Yustoy, who is studying in Jammu, were killed by a single stroke of nature. She lost her parents, brother and a pregnant sister, who had reached her maternal house just a day before the incident. Then, there is the tale of another girl, Tsering Dolma, who is also studying in Jammu. Her friend Yangdol lost three relatives. Many Ladakhi students, worried about the fate of their family and relatives had given their addresses and names to The Tribune team hoping to find them hale and hearty. As one writes this story, one wonders how to call them and tell the tragic end of their near and dear ones. During the fateful night when a cloudburst in lower Leh, especially on Mane Tseling colony, occurred, the giant river of water and mud swept towards the Choglamsar village, wiping away the bus stand, the BSNL office, the radio station and damaging the hospital. At the same time, Saboo River, too, went on rampage destroying the village and forest and eventually taking it all to Choglamsar village, which was destroyed the most. “Saboo village with little over one thousand population was developing fast. Every house had a car or two and children were studying in Jammu, Delhi or Chandigarh. It seems someone cast an evil eye on it,” said Gailtsen. Fear of evil eyes, bad luck or devils is quite common here with people hoisting flags having inscription of mantras on rooftops all over Ladakh. As we slowly climbed up, we passed across ITBP jawans who were busy clearing way to a house whose only upper storey could be accessed, while at other places, people had employed local labourers to clear the mess. We also saw cars that were either buried under sand and debris or were tossed and twisted against walls and tress by the furious river. Then there were boards of an under-construction market, buildings and complexes where a hospital, a library, a college or a school was to come up as per the dream of the former President. The dream is surely going to take longer time now than expected. Immediate challenge is to construct houses with whatever aid is reaching, save crops and food for the harsh winter that is just one and a half month away. Reconstruction of the model village would require huge effort from the state and Centre government. |
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What happened in Leh
Surrounded by rugged, barren mountains, Leh is located in a kind of unique oval shaped bowl on the right bank of Indus. Sounds like the visuals of the surface of the moon. However, five days ago, the barren mountains changed the lives and topography of Ladakh across a stretch of 150 km. Low-pressure area - a meteorological phenomenon - aided by moisture and above-normal temperatures caused the cloudburst.
Around 12.30 am on the August 6, it started raining heavily and continued for just 90 minutes, but it was a whopping 100 mm. Normally, Leh gets 72 mm of precipitation annually, and 90 per cent of it is in the form of snow, which melts slowly over the summer months and does not bring down the mud. Hence nobody was ready for the cloudburst, explained Mohd Hanif, Additional DC of Leh. On the fateful night, the small nullahs and gullies leading down to the Indus turned into ragging torrents carrying boulders, wood and bricks from homes upstream. These nullahs were the cause of the biggest damage. Lt Col KD Gokhale, eye witnessed the incident at Choglumsar near Leh. He said, “The rain was accompanied by huge volume of mud and within minutes everything was gone”. The nullahs brought down bridges at Phyang, Choglumsar, Nimu on the Leh-Kargil axis, besides causing death and mayhem. The water cascading down the mountains joins the right bank of Indus. The left back is a mountain and this blocked the water and mud, leading to huge piles in the hamlets on the right bank of the river, explained a local civil administration official. The worst affected places are located between the right bank of the Indus and the mountains like — Saboo, Nimu, Choglumsar, Phyang, Pang among others. |
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19 airlifted to Jammu hospital
Jammu, August 10 Among the victims, Puneeta and Vijay, a couple, both residents of Chattisgarh were seen crying in the hospital, not because of pain but for their 4-year-old son, Sumit, who went missing during the cloudburst in Phyang village “My son is hundreds of kilometers away and we are unable to find or meet him. We have lodged a report at Leh, but the administration has failed to trace him “, said Puneeta. In a choking voice, she further said had gone to Leh three years ago and that too to earn their livelihood, but lost their son there. “We have lost our earnings of three years and presently we don’t even have a single penny. The cloudburst has ruined us completely”, added Puneeta at GMCH here. Not only Puneeta and Vijay, but also the other victims shifted to the GMCH here were seen wailing for their missing relatives. A 50-year-old woman resident of Leh, Tsering Dolkar, who had lost her sister, brother-in-law and grandson, was still unaware that she had lost her three family members. Tashi Dolma, an attendant of Tsering Dolkar, said:”Tsering has received severe injuries and she would be unable to survive, if she came to know about the truth that she had lost three precious members of her family”. Tsering Dolkar is admitted to GMCH with multiple fractures. The injured who were airlifted from Leh and shifted to the GMCH were identified as four residents of Leh and 15 residents of Chattisgarh. All were brought here in the afternoon. The names of the injured are Konchak Stanzin, Shanti Dass, Nima and Mohd Qassim, all residents of Leh, Savri Blai, Sulchwara, Krishan Lal, Vijay Kumar, Tsering Dolkar, Rajneeta, Imtiyaz Ahmed, Dharmendar Kumar, Sanju Kumar, Parmanand, Rathu, Puneeta, Rameshwar, Suraj Kumar and Pirtu Ram, residents of Chattisgarh. The team of doctors attending on them said all were recuperating from their injuries and after giving them treatment in the emergency block, they were shifted to the Disaster ward of the hospital. Besides, a team of doctors, members of an NGO - Ladakh Student Volunteers Help Group, is also looking after the patients. |
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Cabinet mourns deaths
Srinagar, August 10 It was decided that the Chief Minister would make an appeal to the Council of Ministers to donate one month’s or one week’s salary towards the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for relief and rehabilitation of the flood victims in Leh and other parts of the state. A similar appeal will be made to legislators and government employees. The Cabinet, according to an official spokesman, also approved the transfer and posting of Satish Chander Sawhney, KAS, Additional District development Commissioner, Jammu, as Municipal Commissioner, Jammu, relieving the Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, of the additional charge.
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Oil won’t be supplied to interiors of Valley
Jammu, August 10 “After a meeting with Transport Minister Qamar Ali Akhoon, we decided to deliver supply at the Srinagar main depot only and that, too, under adequate security. We would not ferry fuel to interior areas,” association president Anan Sharma told The Tribune. Yesterday, we dispatched 100 tankers carrying fuel for the Army and today another fleet of 100 tankers was sent for it, he said. It was decided that our tankers would go up to the Army’s transit camp at Banihal on the Jammu-Srinagar highway from where they would move to the Batwara Army camp with an Army escort. On an average, the
association daily dispatches 24 lakh litres of petrol, diesel, kerosene oil
and even ATF to the Kashmir valley through a fleet of 200 tankers. Similarly, the supply to Leh and Kargil would be made under a CRPF escort, said Sharma. He also made it clear
that the owners ofvarious filling stations in Kashmir would arrange their own tankers to ferry fuel from the main depot
in Srinagar to their respective stations. It may be stated here that ever since violence erupted in Kashmir over two months ago unruly mobs attacked and injured at least 35 drivers and damaged 216 tankers. “Out of the 35 injured drivers, 20 suffered serious injuries while our tankers were also heavily damaged,” he said. Now the minister concerned had assured us compensation for the injuries and losses suffered by the drivers and oil tanker owners, added Sharma. |
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Venues for I-Day functions finalised
Jammu, August 10 It was decided in the meeting that the main function would be held at
Government Postgraduate Degree College for Boys, Udhampur, where the Tricolour would be hoisted at 9 am. The contingents drawn from the police, NCC and schools would participate in the march past. It was also decided in the meeting that the District Information Centre, Udhampur, would play a Shehnai Vadan from 5.30 am to 6.30 am in the Deputy Commissioner’s Office Complex and the Town Hall, Udhampur. Other arrangements, including seating, barricading, drinking water, sanitation, medicare, transportation and security, were also discussed and finalised to make the event a grand success. The DDC directed the departments concerned to adopt a coordinated approach in ensuring that the arrangements were made well in advance. The arrangements of barricading and drinking water supply were assigned to the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department. The Electric Maintenance and RE would ensure uninterrupted power supply. The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) would deploy an ambulance with staff and medicines while the ARTO would make arrangement for adequate transportation facilities for the students and visitors. At Reasi, a similar meeting was held to review the arrangements for the celebration of the Independence Day function with fervour and gaiety. A meeting was also convened under the chairmanship of the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Reasi, Avtar Singh, here today. It was also decided that the main function would be held on the premises of the Sports Stadium, Reasi, where the flag hoisting would be followed by a march past. Schoolchildren would also present cultural programmes. Threadbare discussions were held regarding
the arrangements for seating, barricading, security, traffic regulation, drinking water and power supply, sanitation, first-aid, deployment of buses and fire safety. |
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Mid-day meal scheme still attracts kids to school
Jammu, August 10 “Students from weaker section of the society, who could not afford education in private schools and the children of labourers, who hail from other states, get admission in government schools. Under the mid-day meal scheme, the children receive free books and food in the school, due to which the children are still getting admission in governments”, says Veid. “We cannot afford to send our children in private schools. We can send our children in government schools where the fee is affordable. We remain tension-free for the entire day as we know that our children will get food and books from the school,” says Majeer Ahmad, a labourer from UP. Veid says in the absence of the scheme, the situation of the government schools would have been different. |
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29 KAS officers transferred
Srinagar, August 10 Munshi Muzaffar Hussain, Joint Director, Industries and Commerce (Development), Kashmir, has been transferred and posted as Additional District Development Commissioner, Budgam. Mohammad Saleem Shishgar, Joint Director, Tourism, Kashmir, has been transferred and posted as Additional Registrar, Cooperatives, Kashmir. Showkat Ahmad Fazili, Additional Secretary, Labour and Employment, has been transferred and posted as Additional District Development Commissioner, Anantnag. Robin Singh Mehta, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri, has been transferred and posted as Additional District Development Commissioner, Doda, against an available vacancy. Nasir Iqbal Parae, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur, has been transferred and posted as Additional District Development Commissioner, Reasi, against an available vacancy. Others who have been transferred include Showkat Ahmad Dar, Tariq Ali, Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Bhat, Mohammad Ashraf Shanthoo, Syed Atta-ullah Simnani, Amar Singh, Secretary, Bashir Ahmad Khan, Soujanaya Kumar Sharma, Hassan Khan, Jatinder Kumar Gupta, Mohammad Muzaffar Hakim, KJS Bali, MM Rehman Ghasi, Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Rakesh Gupta, Nisar Hussain Wani, Mohammad Ashraf Wani, Rohit Khajuria, Rajinder Singh, Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Sheikh Mukhtar Hussain, Gulzar Hussain and Sunita
Anand. |
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20-kg IED recovered
Jammu, August 10 Official sources said, acting on a tipoff, troopers of 61 RR, 126 Battalion of CRPF and the Mahore Police launched a search in a forest near Angrala from where they recovered the arms. Reasi district SSP Anand Jain said apart from the explosives (IED), 15 Chinese grenades, 3 HE36 grenades, 154 AK rounds, 19 PIKA rounds, one AK magazine, one radio set, 14 strips of Pakistan-made medicines and huge quantity of eatables were also recovered. Meanwhile, sources identified a Lashkar guide killed on August 8 near forward area of Mankote in Mendhar sector in Poonch district as Mohammad Khan, 65, of Sahib Din, a native of Goi Battali in Kotli district of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. However, Poonch district SSP Manmohan Singh
confirmed him as a Pak national. On August 8, troops had gunned down the guide while foiling an intrusion bid by a group of ultras near Rustam Post in Mankote area. Ultras, believed to be five in number, had fled back to PoK. After autopsy, the body of the guide was buried yesterday at a graveyard in Poonch. |
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Eve-teasing leads to clash
Jammu, August 10 There was a heated exchange between the two that followed the manhandling of the girl and her friend. Though the hand of the girl, Vaneesa Chisti, was bitten by the eve-teaser, the police did not take her to hospital for a medical examination till the evening. However, the boy, who allegedly assaulted the girl, was not detained by the police even for questioning. In the clash, an Italian journalist, Paulo Gerpauld, was also roughed up when he intervened. |
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Hotel manager’s body found
Jammu, August 10 The police said the body was recovered from the river in the Belicharana area near Satwari after a local resident informed about it. It further said it appeared as Malhotra had fallen into the river while submerging some religious material into it.
— TNS |
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Dogri film to be screened
Jammu, August 10 Speaking to mediapersons today, Choudhary said: “The film was scheduled to be released one-and- a- half years ago, but due to financial reasons, it could not happen”. Choudhary requested them to come to the theatre to watch the film and make the effort successful. Mohan Singh, another artist, resented that the film did not get any government support or aid. “In other states, governments patronise filmmaking in regional languages by making them tax-free, besides giving other sops to encourage filmmakers”, he said and added “such hurdles would never deter us from promoting the Dogri language”. |
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Curfew in parts of Valley
Srinagar, August 10 The hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has given a call for a weeklong programme of protests and asked people to offer prayers on roads in their respective areas. Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed to enforce curfew in the valley.
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