Monsoon brings flood of miseries in Uttarakhand

Dehradun: Sohan Lal, 52, is yet to overcome the trauma of watching his 10-month-old grandson being swept away in an overflowing rivulet following incessant in Uttarkashi. Thankfully, he could save his wife and daughter-in-law, but they had to spend the night on the terrace of a school.
There are many like him in the hill state, to whom monsoon mayhem has brought a flood of miseries.From a family being reported vanished in flash flood to a survivor using bamboos to come out of a four-wheeler that was washed away minutes after he came out of it; from an entire village getting submerged under water to a brother running from hospital to hospital in search of his missing siblings, the tales of sorrow are floating all across.
“It happened before we could understand. I shouted to my wife and daughter-in-law to run out of the house and held my grandson in hand. But I slipped while running and couldn’t hold him and he got drowned in the river,” Sohan Lal, recuperating at a hospital in Dehradun tells TOI. His eyes are not blinking ever since he was admitted to the hospital. He said that the cloud burst took place around 9 am on Sunday and his entire village — Arakot and Uttarkashi — turned into debris within minutes.
Saksham Kumar, 12 and Hitesh, 16, the two brothers from Makudi village, have seen their entire family getting killed as their house collapsed within minutes the water entered the village. “I was playing outside when I saw my house collapsing brick by brick. I ran towards it and saw my brother’s hand so I pulled him. My mother, aunt, grandmother and sister, all died in the accident,” said Hitesh whose father is mentally challenged and with no other member of the family now alive, the two kids are looking at a bleak future.
Upendra Singh, whose pregnant wife was washed away in the strong current of the Ganga, is not able to hold his tears as he couldn’t even receive her body which was cremated by villagers on Monday. “I could see her hands coming out of water but couldn’t hold it due to the strong current. I saw her head getting smashed by a stone that came down after she was flown 20 meters away,” shared Upendra who has not been able to gather courage to break this news to his daughters, living with his in-laws.
Another survivor Rajendra had a narrow escape and he used bamboos to come out of the four-wheeler which was washed away in the strong currents of a rivulet. He climbed atop a big stone and stayed there for a couple of hours till the time he was rescued. “The vehicle was washed away seconds after I came out. Even the thought that what would have happened if I had been inside the vehicle gives me goosebumps,” he said.
Ishtiaque Ali of Tehri, whose four brothers had went to collect the stock of apples from Uttarkashi was searching for them in all hospitals in Dehradun as there is no news about them since Sunday morning. Jalam, 22, from Chakrata who, too, went to Uttarkashi to collect apples told TOI that over 25 jeeps with people inside got drowned in front of his eyes.
Kuwar Singh Rana, a teacher in Dehradun who hails from Uttarkashi and is helping patient with food at Doon Hospital, feels sad for all those who lost their families. “What an irony that government air lifted these injured persons without their families and now they have no one to take care of them. Hospital is prescribing medicine from outside. They need food, clothes but no one is there to help them,” he said.
Chief medical superintendent, Doon Hospital, Dr KK Tamta told TOI that total eight rescued patients from Uttarkashi are being treated at the hospital and all are stable at present.