NEPAL AFTER THE QUAKE (Satis Shroff)

NEPAL: AFTER THE QUAKE (Satis Shroff)

(Acryl by Satis Shroff: Kanchenjung Massif)

The birds were 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 had been pulverised and what remained were 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 in the morning of April 27, 2015 measuring 7,8 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.

Aquarelle by Satis Shroff

No one knows 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 outdoor 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.

(c)  Patan durbar and the Marketplace in Asan Tole

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 renowned 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 Tribhuvan 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.

Aquarelle by Satis Shroff

Meanwhile, it is May 5,2015 and a politician named Marco Romano (Switzerland) wants to help the people of Nepal and has initiated a motion in his canton Tessin. On his FB page he said: 'The Fed Council should examine the possibility of making it easy for Nepalese to get a temporary work-permit in Switzerland.'

Actually, the talk is about helping the Sherpas during the summer months to work in the Swiss Alpine huts, and to work in the mountain sport sector, according to Ticino News, a daily from Tessin.

'The Nepalese are known throughout the world for their loyalty, faithfulness and their knowledge about mountains, and associated activities,' said Romano. That's why he wants to give 100 to 200 Nepalese Sherpas the chance to use their Himalaya know-how to earn a few Swiss franks so that they can help their families in Nepal. Giorgio Matasci, the president of the Tessiner Alpine Association was delighted: 'We are ready to take Nepalese, to offer them food and shelter and to pay them well for the work.'

Sounds like a good deal. Sherpas as guest-workers in Switzerland. In Rikon (Switzerland) a contingent of Tibetan refugees have been living after China marched into Tibet, and they are well-settled. Their children have enjoyed being a part of the Swiss education system and are working and living in the Alpine country. Similarly, a lot of Tamils fled to Switzerland from the war in Sri Lanka, and were granted asylum and since then they are well-integrated in the Swiss market-world. And Sherpas belong to the mountains. The language might be a problem at the beginning but Nepalese learn fast. So don't be surprised when a Sherpa guides you to the Zermatt and greets you with 'Grüezi!'

Glacier in the Zermatt area, Switzerland

In the Nepalese vernacular newspapers there are stories that Indian Armed Forces have the Tribhuvan Airport in their grip, and that the local government officials are slow, and have been delaying the transport of essential material to the devastated regions due to the lack of helicopters.
On the other hand you hear a Nepalese politician saying: 'What is the use of mayonaise and other foods donated?' He was speculating on rice, dal and tarkari. As... a recipient we are expected to be thankful and show gratitude for the well-meant help. I think it's inappropriate and undiplomatic to say such things in public, especially as a politician. A UN organisation has come up with special biscuits which are handy, don't have to be cooked and are wholesome food. The Americans have also started doing their work of helping the Nepalese, which is also a great thing.
The world want to help this poor country of ours, but the administrative and airport section are currently underfire in the western media due to their chaotic, disorganised, not-very-helpful attitude. The rescue of the rich climbers has also caused eyebrows to be raised, especially since the Italian Reinhold Messner said in interviews in the German-speaking world (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, North Tyrole) that the rich people were getting priority instead of Nepalese in the devastated areas.
Like I said earlier, the Nepalese government has only 3 choppers and 20 helicopters are in the hands of people in the private sector. And yet there is a dearth of helicopters in Nepal for handing over the basic necessities: food, water, blankets, tents.
The crisis management doesn't seem to function optimally. It is hoped that in future Nepal will be better prepared for quakes than this time. We all learn through experience and have to see this as a chance to improve, coordinate and carry out crisis management as it ought to be done, and not the sloppy, indifferent manner it has been done this April and May.
One thing is certain: the tectonic movement of the global plates will occur again. Will we be better prepared for such an eventuality? Or are we going to say, as in the past:' kay garney? Upai chaina.' What to do? There's no way out.