Search the Internet          Tips

Kutchi NGO estimates toll will exceed 1,25,000

Josy Joseph in Bhuj

The Kutch Vikas Trust, the biggest NGO operating in the region, estimates that at least 1.25 lakh people have died in Friday's earthquake.

Fr George Kunnath from the NGO said they were basing their projection on feedback from volunteers who have fanned out in all major towns of Kutch and a survey of some 30 villages in the region.

The total population of Kutch is 15 lakh, spread over 46,400 sq km. The five main towns here are Gandhidham, Bhuj, Anjaar, Mandavi and Mundir, and there are 966 villages in the area.

The NGO estimates that out of the 1.25 lakh population of Bhuj, at least 30,000 are dead. Bachchau, with a population of 25,000, has lost 20,000 people. In Anjaar, some 15,000 are feared to have died. In Rapar, 20,000 are feared dead. Gandhidham, with a population of 1.2 lakh, 30,000 are feared dead.

In villages, the NGO estimates that casualties could vary from 15 to 3000.

What this correspondent found was that all the relief work is concentrated in the main cities and towns, with little trickling down to the villages, where there is extensive devastation. In village after village, the demand is not food and water as much as for tents, bulldozers to clear the rubble and medicines. In villages and Rampur and Rambagh, the villagers have turned down food and water, pleading instead for equipment to clear the debris and medicines.

Sometimes, too much of help may not be such a good thing too. The entire Bhuj-Bachchau highway, for instance, is jam-packed with a long line of vehicles, of those fleeing the area as well as of relief workers - hindering easy flow.

At noon on Wednesday, the Indian Aircraft flew out the families of its men by special aircraft to New Delhi.

The airport itself, which was partially destroyed in the quake, sees about 50-60 civilian flights a day, and some 25-30 in the night-time. At normal times there are two civil flights a day apart from 30 plus fighter sorties.

The spurt in flights is thanks to the aid that is pouring in. A sorry commentary on the way things are can be had at the airport itself, where there are mounds of relief material piled up, lying there for want of a proper distribution channel.

The Complete Coverage | List of earthquake sites

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report