The apocalyptic earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked the himalayan belt, causing the most damages in Nepal. Human casualties have been uncountable; death tolls rising and even unknown.
Damages outside the Kathmandu valley are just sketchy figures, details are yet to come to light. Soon after the quake, relief materials are pouring in, relief funds donated to Nepal government. Bhutan’s prime minister Tshering Tobgay became the first head of the government in SAARC region to visit Kathmandu and offer condolence to the Himalayan neighbor. Bhutan’s gesture of friendship is counted magnanimous, a donation of US$ 1 million from a small Kingdom.
India and China, other two giants seem to be competing for proving their show of friendship. International aid workers are flying to Nepal, with much less knowledge of what and where they need to reach.
The Bhutanese communities across America, Canada, Australia are busy raising funds for supporting the relief work. Some groups have even reached to the actual affected sites and donated relief materials. A team of “Bhutani Dhuk Dhuki”, an online musical and entertainment show in US reached Nuwakot with relief materials, last week.
A team of medical doctors responded to the call of NRN and did a mobile clinic in Gorkha, Nuwakot and Rasuwa district. As one the doctors said from the site, “villages faced catasptrophic damage, with unknown human casulty. The air smelling foul of rotten flesh of human and animals, but no aid workers seen in those remote districts, except the Nepal Army and Nepal Police.”
The official death toll announced is over eight thousands, but it is many times more than that. Most of the fund generated at the communities’ initiative in Nepali Diaspora goes to international relief agencies like Red Cross. But when one reaches to the actual victims far away from Kathmandu valley, no Red Cross Society workers can be seen. The mud roads are blocked and no one dare to carry the relief materials from road head.
Nevertheless, efforts are still underway but hope of finding someone alive from the debris has definitely faded.
