Hundreds of people from Bihar's East Champaran district had gone to Nepal years ago to earn livelihood for a better life, knowing little that they would have to return home battered and bruised from a tragedy.
Hundreds of people from Bihar's East Champaran district had gone to Nepal years ago to earn livelihood for a better life, knowing little that they would have to return home battered and bruised from a tragedy.
Many of those returning home and recuperating in hospitals in Motihari town have harrowing tales to tell about the chaos prevailing in Kathmandu and other towns in Nepal, and how some of them had to jump from multi-storied buildings to save their lives.
A 7.9 Richter Scale earthquake struck Nepal on Saturday and has claimed nearly 6,000 lives in that country and injured over 11,000 others.
Bodies lying under the rubble of destroyed buildings, shortage of food and other essential goods for survivors and desperation to return home by whatever mode of transportation, added to their misery, after being allegedly charged huge fare by transporters.
One of the evacuees, Rajkishore Prasad, who witnessed earthquake occurring right in front of his eyes at Kali Mata locality in Kathmandu at around noon that fateful day, said he was lucky enough to survive, though his hand got injured in the calamity.
A native of Narayan Pakaria chowk under Chauradano police station area of the East Champaran district, Prasad is recuperating at a special ward in Sadar Hospital since his return home, couple of days ago.
He said he saw heaps of human bodies lying under the debris of fallen houses and other structures immediately after the quake rocked the Himalayan nation.
"Many of people on verge of breathing their last cried for help, but nobody was there to come to their rescue," Prasad, a carpenter by profession, said, recounting the scenes, immediately after the calamity, in Kathmandu.
While he survived miraculously, his three friends jumped off buildings to survive the disaster, he claimed.
The East Champaran native said that with everything belonging to him being lost in the quake, he grew desperate to return home by whatever means to be with his family members and relatives.
Stating that he has been traumatised by fear of brutal calamity, Kumar, a native of Gahai village under Dhaka police station area said, he will never go back to Nepal even if he had to die in penury.
Another evacuee, Md Ishtehar, a native of Machhuara village under Dhaka police station area, recounted scenes immediately after quake shook the Nepalese capital city saying that the earth shook and a portion of wall of a house in which he was living suddenly collapsed and fell on him leaving him injured.
Ishtehar, who stitched bags to earn livelihood in Kathmandu, said that like other Indians he too wanted to return home and with six other people hired an SUV by paying Rs 40,000 to come back home with near and dear ones.
"An acute shortage of food, potable water, medicine and transportation, etc, was prevailing in Kathmandu after the quake," he recalled. Ishtehar had to return home empty handed as all his earnings were left behind with his employer whose whereabout he was not aware of after devastation.
"I have spent all my money on returning home," he said with anger writ large on his face for unrealistically high fare being charged by the transporters despite tragedy befalling the country and its people.
Kanhaiya Praad, a native of Narayan Pakaria chowk under Chauradano police station area, who too returned home with some family members after calamitous quake in Nepal, said that his rented house located at Solti More in Kathmandu collapsed in the quake to leave the members shelterless and in a state of shock and despair at losing everything.
"Though we have returned home and are safe, some of family members including kids are still stranded in Nepal...I don't know about them," Prasad, a carpenter, said. Meanwhile, Raxaul Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Saeeda Khatun said that as many as 3,000 people from India and other countries have returned by different mode of transportation and registered themselves in camps being run by the state government.
In addition, there were reports of return of another 7,000 people who though have not registered themselves at the camps so far, she claimed.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}