DARJEELING HILLS / SIKKIM: ‘I saw husband, family plunge into Teesta, vanish in a flash’

Source: Barun Roy on September 21st, 2011

 

 

FROM INDIAN EXPRESS

BY MADHUPARNA DAS

Nimlamu Sherpa, 24, married a year ago. Doctors say she is in shock. partha paul

Nimlamu and Oondi Sherpa had got married just a year ago. On Sunday evening, Nimlamu saw her husband die in front of her eyes, the van they were travelling in being tossed like a matchbox into the gorge and then into the Teesta river below following the earthquake.

The 24-year-old had other family members in the jeep, all trying desperately to return home to Chongey in Upper Gangtok from Kalimpong following the first tremors. Barring Nimlamu, all are dead — her father Phulwa, stepmother Sukhmaya and three-year-old stepsister Kunjan. The van was fished out of the Teesta this afternoon, the bodies inside mangled — more statistics in the death toll in the earthquake in Sikkim, which today reached 53.

Nimlamu stares at the hospital walls, in shock and silence. Having miraculously escaped without an injury, she says: “I saw my husband, my father, stepmother and her daughter rolling in the swirling currents of the Teesta and vanishing within moments. I got stuck against a boulder. When I realised I was alive, I began shouting, which attracted villagers from nearby areas.They rescued me and brought me to the hospital.”

The drive to Kalimpong, an hour away, was meant to be a family outing for Nimlamu and her taxi-driver husband. The orthopaedic surgeon at the Sikkim Central Referral Hospital, Dr Gaurav Kumar, said though Nimlamu does not have any injuries, she is in a state of shock and trauma.

Said Dr D K Kanungo: “She is virtually speechless and stares blankly, sitting up every now and then and complaining that everything around her is shaking — the bed, the fan overhead, the floor — and that she is being tossed around. This is post-earthquake trauma and it will take her time to get over it. We are counselling her and giving her sedatives.” 

The hospital, where 67 victims are currently being treated, is incidentally functioning without tap water. The quake caused the reservoir pipe to burst and hospital staff and even patients have been fetching water in buckets from nearby sources.

Dr Kanungo said that barring 10-12 patients with grievous injuries, the rest all were in trauma or shock. At the Singtam health centre too, most of the 70 patients are showing similar symptoms.

The psychiatrist at Singtam, Kenzeng Ongoo, said the fear the patients were facing was terrible and many had not been able to sleep. For the past two nights, 50-60 people have approached them complaining of dizziness and stomach pain. “Even if they know that saying at home and staying at the hospital makes no difference, there is a certain comfort level in staying in the hospital,” said Ongoo.

Among those who had a miraculous escape is Badri Kumar, a 22-year-old electrician from Vaishali in Bihar. Badri and his colleagues were returning home from Rangbi hydel project in East Sikkim when the quake hit. Badri could see boulders rolling down just behind them. They began running. But then boulders started falling in front of them, and in the confusion and panic, the four got separated.

Badri got hit by a stone and started rolling down the hill when he got stuck in a bush. In pain, he called out for help. His colleagues couldn’t make him out initially in the dark, till Badri started signalling them with the light of his mobile torch. They made their way to him and he was eventually shifted to a hospital.

However, unlike Nimlamu, Badri didn’t escape with just mental trauma. Badly crushed, his left leg will have to be amputated.