The lucky survivor of the Rathi family has returned Sambalpur, but with a heavy heart and remorse. This man has seen 17 adult members of the family floating away in front of him in the flash flood and unprecedented rain in Uttarakhand.
As many as 19 members of this family, including their relatives from Jharkhand, had gone on a pilgrimage (Chardham Darshan) to Uttarakhand on June 8 last. But they never thought that misfortune would follow them during their holy trip. The only elderly man from the Rathi family Suraj Rathi who returned home having escaped from the nature’s fury at Uttarakhand was seen breaking down when he reached the railway station on Saturday night.
Not only family members, but common people and social activists were waiting for him to see him as he was the eyewitness to the great tragedy. It was the early morning of June 17. It started raining cats and dogs accompanied by furious thunder and landslide. The pujari (priest) of the Dharmasala where they were staying said that there was nothing to be worried as it was a safe place, narrated Rathi before the media.
But at 6.40 am, a portion of the Dharmasala got collapsed and washed away in the rain water. Water also gushed into the room they were staying in and carried away 17 members of the Rathi family and five members of a south Indian family staying with them in the same room, Rathi said with teary eyes.
“I don’t know how I and my brother in law from Gumla of Jharkhand Binod Mantry got escaped although we were staying together,” Rathi wondered, adding, “I find no charm in life as the sorrow of missing 17 family members hurts me every moment and I am that unfortunate man who saw the tragedy from close quarters.”
After the water receded, we made a frantic search for the missing members. We also searched the dead bodies, but found none of them, he said. Not only Rathi family, the people of the entire town were shocked to hear the horrible narrative of the old man who saw death and devastation in his own eyes.
However, friends and relatives made an all-out effort to console the family members to bear the irreparable loss.