Commentary: NEPAL AFTER THE SEISMIC SHOCK (Satis Shroff)

Nepal After the Seismic Shock (Satis Shroff)

The birds are flying in panic in the sky over the Durbar Square and Basantapur, Asan Tole like in a scenario from an Alfred Hitchcock film. The temples on which they formerly roosted have been pulverised and what has remained are gigantic conical heaps.

The famous Nautale Durbar temple in the Basantapur Square has been destroyed and the white neo-classical Rana palace from where the former kings and royalty of Nepal used to greet the folk is also partially damaged. The Dhara tower, about which we Nepalese used to read about and the exploits of Junga Bahadur Rana, has also been demolished. Over 4000 people have died, 6,500 injured, and the death toll is expected to be more under the piles of earth, wood and bricks.

A strong earthquake lasting almost 2 minutes hit Kathmandu this morning, 7.9 on the Richter scale, according to USGS. The epicentre lies 80 km north-west of Kathmandu, with a range of 15 km. The worst thing about the quake is that multiple tremors are expected to come. The area of the earthquake hit also Pokhara to the west of Kathmandu. The major quake was felt in New Delhi, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Nepal is a tectonically active area, and the birth of the Himalayas was due to the collision of the Indian subcontinent against the Asian landmass, according to Alfred Wegener's Continental Drift theory. The earthquake could be felt up to Mount Everest and it caused avalanches. The Indian tectonic plate pushed against the Asian land mass at the rate of 45 cm per year. There is always tension along the Himalayas and the movement of the earth cannot be predicted.

Kathmandu is built on the sediment of a dried up sea and can move like jelly during tectonic movements. The recent earthquake was so strong that it moved towns 3 metres to the south. The risk of extreme earthquakes is still there. In the meantime, the tension grows in the tectonic plates. A big stone packet moved 3 metres to the south in 30 seconds causing the earth to shake more than a thousand metres away., with the result that houses crumbled like cards. The tension has been increasing since 500 years and it reached its zenith on Saturday April 25, 2015. A similar quake took place in the year 1505 due to the collision of two continental plates under the Himalayas.

No one knnows when, and how strong, the next tremor will be. The earthquake destroyed the infrastructure of Nepal within short time. In the strongest quake since 81 years over 4000 people have lost their lives and over 7000 were injured. The quake reached Northern India, Tibet, Sikkim and Darjeeling (Mirik).

The suffering of the Nepalese people cannot be put in words because of the immensity and suddenness of the seismic tremors. Houses, streets, roads such as the Thibhuvan Rajpath and the Prithvi Narayan Highway were damaged with long fissures. Kathmandu's Bir hospital, Military hospital, and Patan's Shanta Bhavan hospital are full with indoor and outdor patients and the hospital morgue are also full.

The temple of Pashupatinth, built in 1655 by King Pratap Malla, which lies on the bank of the Bagmati Rive east of Kathmandu, has always served as a last resort for Hindus. The banks of the Bagmati river are now full of people performing the ancient Vedic rituals and cremation ceremonies in a short-cut manner because there are too many dead and mourners staying in line with over 4000 dead that have been reported.

Most of the Kathmanduites and visitors from abroad sleep in tents at the Ratna Park and the Tudikhel grounds due to the insecure situation for you can never know when the earth begins to shake next.

Since April is the mountaineering season, it might be remembered that 350 international groups have received permission to climb the Everest, despite the fact that many Nepalese porters and Sherpas died in an avalanche last year. The Sherpas fear that many climbers are buried in their tents at the Everest Base Camp and below the Khumbu Icefall, the scene of mountain tragedies in the past years. It has been confirmed that 18 climbers have died. Khumjung has been flattened. On Sunday there were a lot of avalanches. A Belgian climber Jolle Veyt had luck after an avalanche. Some 100 climber from different countries were on heir way to Sagarmatha and some were trapped between different camps above the Khumbu Icefalls. According to a climber the ground started shaken in the ten city called the Base Camp below Everest. Panic broke out among the climbers. You could hear four-letter-words from a climber in his moment of angst. Scared, hyperventilating voices. Curses in short syllables. 'Shall we go back to the tent?' asked a climber to his Sherpa. 'Keep down!' was the curt answer. The kitchen helper was buried in the snow. A huge snow cloud appeared and blew over the colourful, trembling tents. The snow cloud covered everything for a while.

Like the Italian climber from Bozen Reinhold Messmer says: 'The mountain tourists have bought the right to climb the highest mountain on earth for 80.000 to 100.000 dollars and now want to get out of Nepal as fast as possible.' But when Nature strikes back with a series of avalanches, the credit card becomes useless in the death zone where a whiteout covers all living beings and objects on its path. A lot of climbers are trapped above the Khumbu Icefall, caught by the avalanches between them and safety. It'll take weeks till the climbers are rescued and what is realistic is that a good many of them will have frozen extremities, even though helicopters and porters from the Base Camp are trying to bring food, drinks and other materials.

As the Italian climber Messner mentioned in a ZDF interview in German TV: 'the focus of the media is only on the Everest climbers and Kathmandu. The houses are built like in the Middle Ages. There are no logistics,, no clear water. The people live from tourism.' With a touch of sarcasm he said: 'You don't have to live on Everest. The people have to live in Kathmandu and the narrow side valleys.'

However, there are bigger tragedies in the valleys and gorges of Nepal away from Everest and Kathmandu. The priority of rescue teams should be to help the Nepalese, if and when, they are injured and need to be transported to Kathmandu or elsewhere, where there is medical assistance, food shelter and clothing available. No differences should be made between credit card waving tourists and poor Nepalese because if we do that then we are guilty of a new colonialism through tourism. This catastrophe should also be an exercise in human ethics. The dignity of the Nepalese should also be protected because they are the people of Nepal and have every right to be treated and transported first if they are seriously injured and not after the principle of afnu manchey: them and us. Guests are always welcome in Nepal because tourism is Nepal's mainstay, but in this hour of need the suffering Nepalese should be given priority as far as medical support, food and other assistance are concerned. Please be fair and objective in your treatment and social interactions with the people of Nepal, be they from Nepal or from abroad. Suffering and injury is not only skin deep.

It is the nameless farmers and their families, who live in the Mahabharat mountains and the Siwalik hills in their huts and small homesteads on spurs and narrow valleys with their goats and a cow or two, sans electricity, sans modern communication, who are the real sufferers of seasonal landslides caused by the heavy monsoon and earthquakes. The roads in the valleys and hillsides are swept away by the landslides, no buses ply along these roads. In the middle mountains, the staple crop is used up after eight months. The able men and women have to go to the flatlands in the Terai or to Indian cities to earn money for food for the winter months. Nepal has become a cereal deficit nation and there's population explosion of 30 million for a country with 140,800 square kilometres, in which only a fourth of the country is covered with forests. Where possible, the roads have been built narrowly to suit the ecological environment. The extreme erosions, caused by earthquake and the incessant monsoon from June to September, cannot be corrected.

It is hoped that the groups that are already in the base camp and Kala Pathar will descend safely to Kathmandu. In this connexion I would like to thank Helen Ayres who worked in the leprosy ward of Anandaban hospital for her good work in Nepal. Out of the 400 Germans in underway in Nepal there seems to be no news about 100. Hope they get in touch with their people at home in Germany.

Old houses, the famous Durbar Square and historical buildings made out of bricks and wood around Basantapur have toppled and are now big heaps on which young Nepalese potter around hoping to head signs of human life buried under the crumbled buildings. Kathmandu's Tribhuuvan international airport is closed.

Meanwhile, the people in Kathmandu are seen running about in the streets, crammed with segments of brick walls and wooden struts of temples with exquisite carvings and houses. You can hear people speaking loudly, shouting nervously, crying out their troubled souls in Nepali and Newari. Those who have motorbikes are trying to snake their way through the rubble and worried, helpless people, trying to help or paralysed by the magnitude of the damage caused by the impact of the quake.

Much like the Japanese, the Nepalese are also used to earthquakes in this tectonically unstable country and there have been earthquakes at different periods. Earlier in January 31, beautiful Pokhara was jolted by an earthquake, measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale, where panic stricken Nepalese and tourists ran to the open paddy fields.

Running for the open spaces is the right thing to do and the Kathmanduites made for the parade ground called Tudikhel near the former Royal Pavillion where normally military parades and horse races take place, and where the youngsters play soccer and friends meet. The motorbikes re parked haphazardly on the green grass of Tudikhel. The people are nervous. Will there be another tremor soon? How soon? How intense? By the way, I was planning to go to Kathmandu at the end of May. I wonder is the Tribhuvan international airport opens till then? Yes, and I'm worried about my friends in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. Are my near and dear ones safe? The green parade ground is much safer which provides a big, open space unlike the narrow lanes and streets of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan where bricks can fall on your head.