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'There were towns called Bhachauo and Anjaar'

Sheela Bhatt in Bhuj, Gujarat

Perhaps the most chilling observation about the Republic Day Killer Earthquake is this, made by Vivek Srivastav, district superintendent of police, Kutch: "Once (upon a time), there were towns called Bhachauo and Anjaar in Gujarat."

The two towns in the Kutch region have been laid to waste.

In Anjaar, the 'bigger' tragedy was that of 400 boys and girls, all of them students who perished while doing prabhat pheri or morning rounds, a dawn-to-morning social service activity made popular by Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

It's meaningless to rate deaths during natural calamities, but locals say the 'biggest' tragedy in Bhuj occurred at three areas -- one, the old city of Bhuj, measuring some four square kilometres, where countless people died; two, the general hospital which collapsed killing 300 people; and three, the six-storey Gokul apartments that crumbled, leaving 170 residents dead.

Two days after the quake, Bhuj truly is a ghost town. Survivors have converted roads and open spaces into roofless makeshift-shelters. Pyres burn incessantly all around. Mountains of mangled metal and torn-down concrete are ubiquitous. Beneath them, people: hopefully alive, perhaps dead.

"Only 5 per cent of Bhuj's structures survived," says Srivastav. Apparently, nearly 20,000 houses in the city (population 75,000) were ripped asunder.

The number of dead is anybody's guess. Apparently, government officials took Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel into confidence and told him that 6,000 people have died in Bhuj alone, though the official figure is pegged at 5,000.

Nearly 48 hours have elapsed since disaster struck Bhuj. A man comes running to DSP Srivastava to convey that three girls are still alive under the debris of Kanyashala or women's hostel, opposite the Nagarpalika office. But the rubble is too heavy for handwork. Each RCC column and each water tank weighs five to ten tonnes. "We need JCB machinery. Only it can help," he tells the DSP.

Apparently, what is needed is excavation machinery, not mining equipment which can hurt survivors trapped under the debris. Nevertheless, machines supplied by Reliance Industries and Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation are pressed into service to extricate bodies and survivors. In all, four cranes are working round-the-clock.

P N Pandya, chief engineer of Gujarat's Public Works Department, says 100,000 structures, including multi-storey buildings, have collapsed in the Kutch region alone. DSP Srivastav says 90 per cent of the buildings in Bhuj, Rathore, Adoi, Khavda have become uninhabitable.

The quake has spared no one. Some see irony in the fact that even the meteorological department's building has been laid to waste. Inside Old Bhuj, a solitary wireless set is the only communication gadget still working.

Till Sunday morning, no one has mentioned HAMs or amateur radio operators. In the aftermath of the Orissa cyclone, HAMs acted as a crucial communication link, under active support from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.

About 1,200 army personnel from three regiments of engineers are involved in the rescue operations. Their top priority is to zero in on spots where human voices emanate from under the rubble. Their task is made difficult by stray dogs that have begun to feed on available corpses. It is agreed that the sooner the rubble is cleared the better; else, an epidemic is not ruled out.

Major Om Gulati of the Indian Army says all precautions are being taken while clearing the seemingly endless debris. However, lack of water in toilets in what remains of the town is adding to the problems.

He adds that while the Army personnel are relatively safe, many offices of the Indian Air Force were badly damaged. Some of the multi-storey buildings of the IAF, in fact, crashed, taking a heavy toll of IAF men. The Army could so far save 2000 people from certain death.

Daksh Pandhi, 17, says he is not sure whether the quake at 8:55 am on January 26 was indeed the Big One. Aftershocks continue to rock Bhuj; so far, 250 of them have been recorded.

If Srivastav's comment about Bhachchao and Anjar was chilling, local journalist Naveen Joshi's revelation is shocking: "I've been to Benares (Varanasi) in December 2000 to report about a seminar of seismologists. A paper submitted at the seminar said, in no uncertain terms, that Kutch is a laboratory for seismologists. Little did I imagine that it would be the truth."

The Complete Coverage

EXTERNAL LINKS
The RD Killer Quake of Jan 26, 2001: Technical details
All about earthquakes in India and their impact
India Meteorological Department's earthquake reports
Disaster relief set-up in India
Major earthquakes across the world in recent times
A post-quake volunteer's unusual tryst with the departed
Earthquake News: Web site offering comprehensive news, information and features
Earthquake site map
USGS: Earthquake Hazards Program

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