When the floodwater began pouring into their homes on the evening of June 16, the inhabitants of Pulma and Bhyundar villages in Uttarakhand could do nothing but run.
The 500 or so villagers trekked up a nearby mountain, sheltering in a forest for almost two days without food and water until they saw Indian Air Force helicopters overhead and managed to signal for help.
Now, packed into a dilapidated guesthouse-turned-relief-camp in Joshimath, some of the survivors of the deadliest floods recorded in Uttarakhand region face a new hurdle in their struggle for survival.
“There was no time. The houses were starting to get flooded, so we just left everything. There is nothing left there now – our houses have gone, our fields have gone and now there is no work in the towns,” said 38-year-old Kalpana Rawat, a housewife and mother, sitting in a room crowded with other women and children.
The unprecedented rainfall last month, which wreaked havoc across the region, making rivers overflow and setting off massive landslides, killed almost 6,000 people. Two million people, one-fifth of Uttarakhand’s population, have had their lives disrupted by the devastation.
One month on, as news of the disaster fades from the headlines of national newspapers and television channels, tens of thousands of survivors – left without homes or work – are trying to cope with the impact of the calamity.
Subsistence farmers have suffered huge losses, their fields of wheat and potatoes swept away by the deluge. Aid groups say almost 9,000 cows and other livestock have perished, and there is little fodder for the few remaining animals.
Land of the gods
Even more worrying is that the main source of income for many families – the once-thriving religious tourism industry – has dried up.
Many hotels and restaurants built on river banks collapsed into the rushing waters, while others were buried under landslides. It could take months, if not longer, for the sector to recover.
A recent assessment from Sphere India, a coalition of national and international aid groups which are working in the area.
For thousands of years, pilgrims have flocked to Uttarakhand’s majestic Himalayan mountains, drawn by the ancient Hindu belief that it was here that deities such as Lord Shiva and Vishnu resided.
The region is often referred to in Hinduism as “Dev Bhoomi” or the “Land of the Gods.”
As a result, the popular pilgrimage route known as the “Char Dham Yatra,” attracts hundreds of thousands of devotees annually, all seeking salvation.
Now the shrines, four of them, as well as a popular Sikh temple Hemkund Sahib, have been closed down, and the numerous small towns and villages that line the main 645km Char Dham route are like ghost towns.
Thousands of informal workers, such as waiters in small roadside restaurants and porters who would carry the elderly, sick and children up to the shrines on stretchers or mules, have no means of earning a livelihood now, he says.
Hotel owners and shopkeepers say their only revenue these days is from aid workers, government officials, journalists and service personnel deployed after the disaster.
Road to recovery
A survey by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated that the tourism industry has suffered losses of Rs120bn.
“Tourism is [our economy’s] backbone…it makes up 37% of my GDP,” Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said.
“As a result of this disaster, the entire state’s tourism sector has been affected.”
Bahuguna’s government has announced financial compensation for people who have had their homes damaged or destroyed, and money for livestock losses.
But aid agencies say there has been little mention of how farmers whose land was swept away by the floods, or those working in the tourism sector, will be rehabilitated.
Cash-for-work schemes, such as paying people to help in reconstruction work or to distribute aid, would put some money in people’s pockets, and ensure food security for the next three to six months, aid groups say.
But long-term plans for relocating people whose villages and land have been destroyed need to be set out and implemented as soon as possible.
Back at the relief camp in Joshimath, Kalpana Rawat lays down around 20 mattresses on the
