Man was witness to 17 kin perishing in landslide
The tragedy near the Kedarnath temple of Uttarakhand completed one year on Tuesday. But Suraj Rathi (70), a businessman of Sambalpur town, is yet to come to terms with it. For, he is that unfortunate man who saw his family members dying.
A total 19 had been on a pilgrimage to Kedarnath for a holy Darshan of lord Siva on June 8, 2013. They had to return on June 16. But the weather warning made them halt for another day.
On June 17, 2013, the Rathi family was inside the Rajasthan Dharmasala of the Kedarnath shrine. They were waiting for tea. The priest of the Dharmasala also told them to wait for a few minutes. It was raining torrentially. Soon a landslide took place. Its sound was furious.
Awe-struck members of the Rathi family were witnessing the nature’s fury from the window of the room. But it was not to be for long. “The Dharmasala soon came under the grip of the disaster and a major portion of it was washed away,” recalls Rathi with teary eyes.
“I and my brother-in-law Binod Mantry of Gumla (Jharkhand) were standing near a door. And, we don’t know how we got escaped from that catastrophe,” says Rathi further.
“I am that unfortunate man who has witnessed 17 members of my family being washed away in water like straw,” he says further, adding, “I and my brother-in-law, after four days of struggling, managed to save our lives. But life has gone valueless for us without those who were washed away in front of us and we couldn’t do anything for them.”
Rathi laments that his family is yet to get any compensation from the Government. Even he is yet to get death certificates of the family members.