Nine days after a powerful earthquake devastated Nepal, the government officially said that the search-and-rescue phase was over and the focus now was on retrieving the dead and providing relief to the affected. Meanwhile, the death toll has risen to 7,557, according to the latest update by the country's home ministry. As many as 10,718 buildings were destroyed while 14,741 sustained partial damages, the ministry said. About 191,058 houses have been flattened and 175,162 were partially devastated. The district worst hit in the quake is Sindhupalchowk which recorded 2,911 casualties, while Kathmandu witnessed 1,202 and Nuwakot 904, the ministry added.
NDRF pulling out
India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which had the largest presence on the ground with 16 teams engaged in search-and-rescue operations, said it was pulling out. NDRF Director General O P Singh said: “We are now withdrawing ourselves in a phased manner. About 250 NDRF personnel have left on Monday and another 150 on Tuesday. The rest will be going back in a day or two.”
Earlier, Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, Joint Secretary and spokesperson for the Nepal Home Ministry, said, “As per guidelines of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group, the duration of search-and-rescue is for only seven days. So our Central Natural Disaster Relief Committee decided on Sunday that those who helped Nepal, we would like to thank them, and now that their job is almost complete, we would like to request them to make exit plans.”
“Our friends who came here from 34 countries have done a very wonderful job and they have been with us at a very difficult time. We are very thankful to them,” Dhakal said.
As many as 76 rescue teams and 70 medical teams with a total strength of 4,050 personnel and 129 canines were involved in search-and-rescue operations across Nepal, including 962 from India, 370 from China, 286 from Israel, 140 from Sri Lanka and 106 from Singapore.
“The teams saved 16 lives together with the Nepal Police and Nepalese Armed Forces,” Dhakal said. “Their main task was in the Kathmandu Valley and the urban areas since large structures require certain specialization. We are capable of retrieving the bodies from beneath smaller structures such as huts,” he said. Almost 50 per cent of the foreign personnel, he said, were expected to leave soon and the operations would be wrapped up by Friday.
According to the Home Ministry, the count of the dead until Monday stood at 7,557 while 14,366 people were injured, and 6,085 under treatment. “It was predicted that the death toll could reach 10,000. We have information about bodies buried in remote areas, so we might reach that figure,” Dhakal said. As many as 54 foreigners died in the earthquake, while 52 were injured and 109 missing.
The Nepal government has decided to set up a Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Fund, hoping to collect $2 billion. It has transferred $2 million as seed money. The government estimates that reconstruction could cost around NPR 200 billion. Foreign Affairs Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey discussed the issue with heads of diplomatic missions based in Nepal but gave no date on when it would start.
Pandey said utilization of funds would be transparent and open to audit. “The international community will have no reason to worry about it not reaching the targeted people.” He asked diplomats to make specific commitments on how best they could contribute to the reconstruction effort. “We know you have all the right gestures for us. But a specific commitment will help us draw a plan for time-bound execution,” he said.
About 100 bodies found in trekking village
Nepal police and local volunteers found the bodies of about 100 trekkers and villagers buried in an avalanche and were digging through snow and ice for signs of dozens more missing, officials said.
The bodies were recovered on Saturday and Sunday at the Langtang village, 60 km north of Kathmandu, which is on a trekking route popular with Westerners. The entire village, which includes 55 guest houses for trekkers, was wiped out by the avalanche, officials said.
"Local volunteers and police personnel are digging through six-feet (deep) snow with shovels looking for more bodies," said Gautam Rimal, assistant chief district officer in the area where Langtang is located. The dead include at least 7 foreigners but only two had been identified, he said.
India evacuates 170 foreigners
India has evacuated 170 people of 15 countries including the US, the UK, Russia and Germany. The foreign evacuees include four people from Brazil, 20 from Czech Republic, five from France, eight from Germany, 33 from Poland, two each from Russia and South Africa, 71 from Spain, one from Switzerland, four from Tanzania, three from the UK, five from Ukraine and 10 from the US.
Box
See pages 16 and 17 for Nepal earthquake related events in UK
