Anil Kumar Bhatt : Uttarakhand flood survivor sharing his experience
"My name is Anil Kumar Bhatt and I am a resident of Vijaynagar in District Rudraprayag".
He Says "The destructive floods hit us on the night of the 16th of June. There (pointing) where you can now see a mound of rocks, my house used to stand in the middle of it. I had 2-3 plantations here (pointing). And there (pointing towards a shop) by the side of that shop was the road on which I had my own shops... ten of them. Behind the shops I had my residence and the three fields whichdon't exist anymore. As you can see, today there is nothing left and it isall barren. The river flows there now. At present, no one can say that there was a residence there. That (pointing) cut rock you can see, there used to be a very famous temple there. It was known by the name of Puranadewal, which was a temple to Goddess Bhagwati. Behind that there was a big building which was owned by the Badri-KedarCommittee and they had a tourist guesthouse there(pointing), which has also been destroyed now. From there to all the way there(pointing), were shops. This whole barren area that you can see used to be our houses, around 35 families and there were crores worth of property here. Now today, as you see, it is all barren and broken down. It is all infront of your eyes. Now you might even ask me how there could have been any houses there. People ask us now why we constructed houses in such a place, but it was not like this before. Today it has been 40 years that I have been living here and never have I seen so much water in this river. It is certainly beyond our understanding. The level of the river, at which it is flowing right now... ithas undoubtedly increased by 20 to 22 feet. So much of debris has gone into the river. We had three whole fields right here, and there on the rocks, on their edge was the river. There used to be a hanging bridge and under it was the river. Today, no one could say that there were houses here or any shops...nothing of that sort. This place has become desolate and it is a depressing place now. People have lost their lives' worth of savings and incomes. The river you see right now is atleast flowing 20-25 feet above the original level. This area that you see, where the river is flowing right now, It had many houses where all these families, including mine used to reside. There is nothing left today and the river is flowing at least 20 to 25 feet above its usual level. The river has swelled up and the level of the water has risen to unbelievable heights. Firstly the calamity that happened at Kedarnath, it brought down all the water downstream to these areas and thus the river's level also rose. But the most important reason for this flood that has struck us and has stayed in our minds are the dams that have been constructed everywhere in these areas. One that has been constructed at Sonprayag and the one that is being made at Gaphni Village might be the cause. All these dams in their project reports or DPRs, they should have had a separate dumping ground but what they did was that they dumped everything by the river and kept it stored there. Four to five feet high crate wires were just kept by the roads, beside the river. On top of that, they dumped thousands of quintals of industrial debris, which was their own. So maybe if that was not there, our houses might have been saved. But all that debris that the water took along with it, came down with so much flow and pressure, that it broke down all our houses and took away everything with it".
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