Earthquake-hit Bajura people living out braving biting cold

By Sher Bahadur Sarki, Bajura, Jan. 27: The earthquake that shook Bajura on Tuesday has forced the district’s residents from their homes and into the biting cold. Bajura, along with other hilly districts of Sudurpashchim Province, received heavy snowfall this 

week which caused the temperature here to plunge. “However, it seems that fate did not want us to stay in and keep warm,” Mansara Thapa, a resident of Budhinanda Municipality–9, said with sorrow, referring to the 5.9 magnitude quake that struck the district Tuesday at 2.43 pm.

“We are between a rock and a hard place and do not know where to go,” she added. “We cannot stay in our houses because they are so damaged that even a breeze may knock them down and we cannot live outside because we might freeze to death.”

“We are staring at possible death on either side.”

Many mud and stone houses of the district had already been damaged by the earthquake that hit Sudurpashchim on November 9, 2022. They are now teetering on the edge of collapse following the latest quake.

In addition to November’s earthquake, many settlements in Budhinanda Municipality and Swamikartik Khapar and Jagannath rural municipalities had also been put at risk of landslides by last year’s monsoon. Since then, several families in the local levels have been living in tents under the open sky. 

Now, they have been joined by the residents of Badimalika Municipality and Gaumul and Himali rural municipalities.“Must we spend our entire lives this way?” questioned Maniram Bhandari, a local of Himali Rural Municipality. “We are either pushed out by rain or by landslide or by snow and now, by an earthquake. We have not been able to eat, drink or sleep in peace for two years now.”

For now though, Raj Bahadur Bhandari, chief administrative office at Himali, said that the local government was collecting data on the damages caused by the earthquake and had asked relevant agencies to help manage the people forced outdoors in the frigid cold.

“Our immediate focus, however, is on providing everyone tarpaulins so they get some protection from the elements,” he said.

Tuesday’s quake destroyed or damaged 263 houses in eight local levels in Bajura, according to information presented by the District Police Office. This means that at least 263 families are presently homeless.

Bajura’s Chief District Officer and Coordinator of its District Disaster Management Committee Puskar Khadka informed that the largest number of people had been affected 

in Gaumul.  

Meanwhile, a team of experts has also arrived in the district to look at ways to help the earthquake victims and present recommendations on building earthquake-resistant structures in the future.