Such has been the effect of disaster experienced almost two months ago that in the affected villages of the mountain State, people still spend sleepless nights in fear whenever it rains. Apart from the distressing psychological effects of the calamity, the lack of connectivity and hygiene are exacerbating the chronic health problems experienced by many even in villages which have not suffered major damage.
Papra Malla is a small hamlet of about 35 households at Thatyur in Tehri district. The heavy rains on June 16-17 and landslide turned a seasonal mountain stream into a wide body of rubble which buried farms and damaged homes.
The rubble which is more than 12 feet deep in many places, still gives sleepless nights to the villagers who now want the Government to relocate the village. The topographic features and trees prevented body of rubble from destroying the village.
However, this body has now developed a gap and villagers fear that heavy rain or another landslide could wreck the hamlet. With the village school filled with rubble, the children walk to Thatyur about two kms away using a steep rubble strewn path to attend school.
Villager Murari lal said, “We are unable to sleep at night even if it drizzles. Those living near the course of the stream shift to higher areas out of fear even though the other homes too have developed cracks. The owners of 10 out of the 12 homes damaged were given Rs 4,000 each in monetary relief by the Government, but the Patwari misbehaved with us when he visited the village. More than once the relief material intended for our village never reached us," said lal. Though the villagers praise some Government officials who behaved with sensitivity and acted as required, they praise NGOs for doing more than the Government.
Nakul, volunteering with Doctors For You which conducted a medical camp in the village, said that while some children tend to wake up at night in fear, the old people who have seen disasters in the past are reliving their
memories.
"Most of the cases we are seeing are chronic ailments which have been exacerbated by factors like lack of connectivity, inadequate health services, lack of hygiene and skin infections fueled by humidity. Some women are also experiencing reproductive health issues. Apart from medication, we are encouraging hand washing in villages we visit to prevent infections," he said.
Nearly two months after the disaster, people live in fear in villages where no one died from the calamity and where the damage was not major. One can only imagine the physical and
psychological conditions being experienced by residents of villages devastated in the disaster.