Miraculous escape for residents of hamlet

As many as 1,50,960 homes destroyed

It was a miraculous escape for the residents of this tiny hamlet nestled in the Manaslu mountain ranges that is home to world’s most famous trekking routes.

Only two of the 20 houses in this settlement on the way to Gorkha district headquarters emerged unscathed after the 7.9 magnitude temblor that shook Nepal on Saturday last.
Home to ex-servicemen of the Nepal Army, most residents of this hamlet are into farming on the beautifully terraced mountain slopes.

“Most of the men of the hamlet were out in the fields tending to the vegetables grown in the mountains,” said Dil Bahadur Thapa, an ex-serviceman of the Nepal Army.

There was no loss of human lives in this hamlet, Thapa said.

Ramamayee Khatri, an elderly lady, was cooking rice when she felt the first jolt that sent her scrambling out of her mud and brick home. Barely had she come out, her home was reduced to rubble. Her daughter-in-law Chanda was also saved as she had stepped out to the farm to pick fresh vegetables.

Similar were the tales of the residents of Taple, a hamlet situated at a short trek away from here.

Sant Bahadur Biswakarma, a farmer, was tending to his maize field when the quake struck. He rushed home only to find a heap of bricks. He rummaged through the debris to look for some belongings, but was not so lucky.

On Friday, after waiting for a good six days, Biswakarma undertook the six kilometre trek to Gorkha district headquarters to pick up some relief material. Armed with spade, hammer and tarpaulin sheets, he trekked back to Taple, where no relief had reached.

The scattered settlements in the mountain ranges in this area have made distribution of relief quite a challenge for the Nepal Army.

“There is always a possibility of leaving out somebody. We are making all efforts to ensure that the relief reaches one an all,” a Nepal Army captain said.
Isolated hamlets are still cut off because scarce helicopters cannot land in some mountainous areas, and roads have been destroyed.

As many as 1,50,960 homes have been completely destroyed by the temblor.