a) Rice, Pulses (Daal), Sugar, Salt, Spices, Mustard Oil (Cooking Oil), Maggie, Biscuits, Torches, Candles, Matchboxes, BlanketsTarpaulins (Tirpal)Tents, Umbrellas, Slippers.
Old clothes and utensils were kept separately for strict need based distribution as we received negative feedback about the cloth distributions, villagers refused to accept old torn cloths from government agencies and few NGOs .
A total of 251 such kits were prepared of which 45 contained both tarpaulins and tents, 10 contained tents and rest contained all items mentioned above except tarpaulins and tents since we had just 45 tarpaulins and 55 tents available with us.
2. Intimation to different departments of administration – This was an important task. Earlier at some places the distribution of relief material created law and order issues hence the authorities wanted it to be conducted in an organised manner under intimation to them.
For this the SDM Kotdwara, SDM Rudraprayg, Tehsildar Jakholi and Block Pramukh Jakholi were intimated in advance. Jakholi the hub town for distribution: – Jakholi Tehsil is very near to Guptkashi, the road from Jakholi to Guptkashi is now being used as an alternative road to Guptkashi and Ukhimath as all other roads are completely damaged. More than 70000 pilgrims were rescued through Jakholi tehsil only and now entire relief material is also being sent through this route. Government agencies are also using Jakholi as the main hub station for their relief material. We planned to store our relief material here for further distribution.
This was another important task, since all transporters are well aware about the condition of route to various places in Rudraprayag they were either reluctant or were demanding very high prices. Finally we managed to book one truck (Tata 709) with 70 Quintal capacity and one MUV
After completing all preparations we decided to make a move on 17th July. Truck and MUV was loaded in the morning itself. A small meeting of eminent people of Kotdwara was called for their suggestions and guidance on our way forward before the flag off of the relief material. The gathering was chaired by SDM Kotdwara Mr. Pushkar Singh Rana, Mr. Kulanand Baunthiyal, President, Sachidanand Social Institute and Engineer Pratap Singh Bist a known social worker in the area.
Mr. Baunthiyal addressed the meeting and expressed his grief and condolence for the victims of calamity. Mr. Kalika Prasad suggested that, all attendees should pray for the departed souls by observing a silence of 2 minutes. SDM Mr.Pushkar Singh Rana, Engineer Pratap Singh Bist and Mr. K N Baunthiyal flagged off the truck and MUV from Kalika Niwas, Balasaur Kotdwara and wished the team best of luck for the daunting task ahead.
The event was reported by all hindi leading news papers like Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala, Rashtriya Sahara and Hindustan Times (Hindi)
We reached Jakholi late at night on 17 th July due to the damaged roads and a minor accident our truck met with. We decided to start our distribution work from next day onwards. On 18th Morning first of all a place was identified to store our relief material. Two rooms were rented for a month and entire stock was placed there. The Block Pramukh Jakholi and the Gram Pradhan visited us and promised to provide their support in future. In the mean while information was sent to the nearby village Kabtiyan so that the affected people can come and collect the relief material from the store itself. Kabityan village falls in Jakholi tehsil and is around 50 Kms from Guptkashi. This village didn’t face any damage by the calamity but 2 houses of Bhandari’s got completely damaged in the heavy rains of 17-18th June. The houses belonged to two brothers, elder one was a daily wage labour but out of any job since last 1 year due some medical issues now his family of 7 was dependent on whatever they could produce on the small piece of land that they had, this land is now full of debris of their own house. The younger brother used to earn bread for his family of 5 by ferrying pilgrims to Kedarnath on his mule and is now jobless post discontinuation of yatra. These jobless, homeless families have now taken shelter at a government school. We came to know an interesting story about the eldest daughter of elder brother, Vinita Bhandari. Vinita is studying in BSc 2 nd year in HNB Garhwal University.
She was at home when the roof fell on her head. She was lying unconscious in debris till her waist for some time and was later taken to hospital where she survived as she did not suffer any major injury. Vinita lives alone at Srinagar and is a brilliant student, she scored 82% in BSc 1st year, 90% in 12 th (CBSE) and topped the district and 89% in 10th (CBSE). This girl is the only ray of hope for this family and she needs help to continue her studies.
The families arrived and the relief material was distributed to them by Block Pramukh and Gram Pradhan. We decided to meet their daughter at Srinagar while returning to Kotdwara and took her mobile number. Now we moved to the next affected village of Sumaadi and quickly distribute the relief material to the affected families. After Sumaadi, we decided to head towards the one of the worst affected village Chaka. Chaka was very close to the Jakholi Tehsil office but the disaster made it around 70 kms away as the normal route to Chaka was completely swept away. Even on the alternate route the last 4 kms had to be travelled on foot as the road there was also gone. We decided to move to Chaka and tried to arrange a pick up van so that the relief material for around 30 families can be transported. We had information that 21 families from this village were affected but going by our experience we knew that the government records may have skipped few of the victims, so wanted to keep the material a little in excess. Our plans went hay wire as none of thelocal transporter was interested in sending their vehicles, according to them the roads were in a pathetic shape and they did not want to take any risk. One transporter finally agreed but the rate he quoted was beyond our reach, he wanted us to pay 4 times of normal fare. Left with no other choice we decided to load as much material as possible to the MUV (Tavera) and moved with only 2 team members Girish Dangwal and Ravi Kala as the vehicle was full to the optimum levels. We carried relief material for 21 families and decided to serve at least those people whose names were already with us in records. We started our journey at around 1 O clock and just w ithin 15 minutes the central bolt of our car broke, primarily due to heavy load and damaged roads. Luckily we got a repairing shop and were again set to go by 3.30, we travelled through landslides, debris, mud filled slippery roads, actually no roads – just a mud filled track which was being used as a road, we covered 50 kms by 10.30 PM. Yes it took us 7 hours to travel 50 kms, our vehicle got stuck twice in the mud, we were lucky enough to get help from locals and other people travelling on the road (almost all of them were carrying relief materials to Guptkashi, most of them were from government agencies and few from some NGOs). At 10.30 PM we reached a small village called Dyuodi, we were feeling stranded and were wondering whether we will have to spend our night on road only as there were no hotel/lodges available in this small village. One villager suggested that we should meet Mr. Rana as he may be of some help. We knocked his door, a man in late seventies with a candle in one hand opened it as there was no electricity at that time. Upon knowing the reason, he whole heartedly welcomed us in his home and even prepared some “kichdi” for us. This old man who served strangers so enthusiastically lives alone and is keeping the flag of humanity high, this is how the locals know him and rightly so.
Next day we started early and reached near Chaka. We went to the village on foot to communicate the victims to come to the road head and collect their relief material. Though we clearly informed that only 21 families can be supported right now and for others we will come again more than 35 families came to road, it was not their fault everyone had suffered badly in this calamity and all were equally desperate. But falling short of material we distributed the relief on first come first basis and tallied their names in the list prepared earlier so that the relief material doesn’t fall in the wrong hands. The material was finished soon and all left were few happy faces belonging to the 21 families whose bags were full with our relief materials and there few faces sad with their hands carrying empty bags of hope.
Three widows who reached the place at last were very vocal, unlike for the hardworking hill women but their situations made them so, all they required were Tarpaulins as according to them the Ration was supplied by government as well but since walls and roofs of their houses have developed crack they need only tarpaulins to save their grains and other things from rains, it was a very genuine demand, we noted their names and promised to come again with their tarpaulins We also met few families having completely ruptured houses with cracks everywhere. These people have also taken shelter at government schools as their houses may collapse any time but they are not being considered for relief compensation or material by the government as their houses are still to fall. All they have received is Rs. 2700 /- as interim relief, we collected their details as well and with a promise to return we started our journey back to Jakholi. Although it was a tough journey but was compensated by a huge satisfaction of doing our bit.
