<p>“Are you going to give us something?” a young man with tattoos on both arms asks. When this correspondent responded that he was only a journalist and couldn’t provide anything, he responded angrily, “Go away. We don’t want media. We want food and relief materials.”<br /><br /></p>.<p>The angry young man is Sarnik Aryal, a post-graduate student of Pokhra University, who reached his ancestral village Sipaghat in Sindhupalchok district on Sunday – a day after the devastating quake. Ten members of his family are on the road since then without even a makeshift tent as the material has not reached Sipaghat.<br /><br />Located about 40 km from Kodari, the township closest to the 6.9 aftershock that came on Sunday, the village has been completely destroyed by the two killer tremors that came within 24 hours of one another. Since then nobody from the administration has reached the village where only the debris of buildings provide a grim reminder of what used to be a thriving rural market. “On Sunday, a group of policemen came. They photographed us and left. Since then, no government aid and no relief,” said Man Bahadur, a villager.<br /><br /> “Maybe the government thought that we can buy food since our village has a market. But they don’t know the reality,” said Sujal, a high school student who studies in Kathmandu but came back to the village a day after the killer quake.<br /><br />Ten people died in this village of a 1000-odd population. As there were no rescue workers, the villagers painstakingly removed the heaps of rubble to retrieve the corpses from the houses and cremated them on the banks of the river Indravati that flows next to the village. The last body was retrieved only on Tuesday. The room still smells of decayed flesh. <br /><br />On the other side of the river bank, the bodies recovered from other villages are still being burnt. <br /><br />Sindhupalchok district has the highest number of casualties – more than Kathmandu, which receives the maximum attention from the world. <br /><br />Till Tuesday night, the official death count for Sindhupalchok was 1,260 whereas Kathmandu recorded 1,039 deaths.<br /><br />The Nepal government is under attack for its inability to reach out to most of the affected areas in the countryside. “Even in good times, transportation is a huge issue in Nepal. And now because of the earthquake, rain and landslides, the relief is not reaching the distant villages,” Dale M Mole, a former US Navy doctor, who runs a charity hospital in the adjacent Kavre district told Deccan Herald.</p>
<p>“Are you going to give us something?” a young man with tattoos on both arms asks. When this correspondent responded that he was only a journalist and couldn’t provide anything, he responded angrily, “Go away. We don’t want media. We want food and relief materials.”<br /><br /></p>.<p>The angry young man is Sarnik Aryal, a post-graduate student of Pokhra University, who reached his ancestral village Sipaghat in Sindhupalchok district on Sunday – a day after the devastating quake. Ten members of his family are on the road since then without even a makeshift tent as the material has not reached Sipaghat.<br /><br />Located about 40 km from Kodari, the township closest to the 6.9 aftershock that came on Sunday, the village has been completely destroyed by the two killer tremors that came within 24 hours of one another. Since then nobody from the administration has reached the village where only the debris of buildings provide a grim reminder of what used to be a thriving rural market. “On Sunday, a group of policemen came. They photographed us and left. Since then, no government aid and no relief,” said Man Bahadur, a villager.<br /><br /> “Maybe the government thought that we can buy food since our village has a market. But they don’t know the reality,” said Sujal, a high school student who studies in Kathmandu but came back to the village a day after the killer quake.<br /><br />Ten people died in this village of a 1000-odd population. As there were no rescue workers, the villagers painstakingly removed the heaps of rubble to retrieve the corpses from the houses and cremated them on the banks of the river Indravati that flows next to the village. The last body was retrieved only on Tuesday. The room still smells of decayed flesh. <br /><br />On the other side of the river bank, the bodies recovered from other villages are still being burnt. <br /><br />Sindhupalchok district has the highest number of casualties – more than Kathmandu, which receives the maximum attention from the world. <br /><br />Till Tuesday night, the official death count for Sindhupalchok was 1,260 whereas Kathmandu recorded 1,039 deaths.<br /><br />The Nepal government is under attack for its inability to reach out to most of the affected areas in the countryside. “Even in good times, transportation is a huge issue in Nepal. And now because of the earthquake, rain and landslides, the relief is not reaching the distant villages,” Dale M Mole, a former US Navy doctor, who runs a charity hospital in the adjacent Kavre district told Deccan Herald.</p>
