A Report on Rural Camp at New Didsari

Village, UttarKhasi , Uttrakhand

Arun D Paul
MA Social Work , III Semester
Department of Social Work
University of Delhi
Rural Camp at New Didsari Village, UttarKhasi , Uttrakhand , 6th -12th November 2013

Introduction
Without any doubt , I can claim that Rural Camp was one of the best ever learning
experience I ever had in the department. Though Didsari was one of the least affected
villages in the whole North India floods of 2013 , it was one among the worst hot among the
villages we visited from the department. Through this report alongside my learning
experiences I would like to appraise the relief activities conducted by government and
different relief organization and attempt to propose a more sustainable solution to
different problems faced by people for New Didsari for decades.
Quick overlook into 2013 North India Floods
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the rainfall in Uttarakhand during the
week of 20th to 26th June 2013 has been in excess by 37 per cent of normal rainfall. This
caused the melting of Chorabari Glacier at the height of 3800 metres and eruption of the
Mandakini River which led to heavy floods During this period, the state received 73.3
centimeters of rain while the normal rainfall is usually 53.6 centimeters.
Whereas according to National Institute of Disaster Management ,the possible causes of the
unprecedented phenomena were:
i.

Collision of Western disturbances with monsoon easterlies

ii.

Heavy precipitation on three continuous days above tree line resulting into
runoff of debris, moraine and boulders from 13000 ft to 6500 ft in 6km distance.

iii.

There have been cloudbursts in several river basins including the Bhagirathi,
Alaknanda, Yamuna, Asiganga and Mandakini, which were devastated by flash
floods and landslides.

Following the heavy rainfall several famous villages and settlements such as: Kedarnath
Shrine area, Harsil, Uttarkashi, Gaurikund, Rambara, Guptkashi, Sonprayag, Srinagar, etc.
suffered heavy damages..
As of July 29 about 580 were confirmed dead and more than 5,359 people (including 938
locals and 4421 pilgrims) and 91 Nepali citizen are "presumed missing".

On quick note of the extent of tragedy: 37,000 sq. miles area was affected with an estimated
Loss to economy is Rs.3,000 crore ; 2232 houses destroyed in Uttarakhand; 90
Dharamshalas swept away; more than 1,000 Bridges damaged; 695 water schemes
affected; more than 300 villages facing severe drinking water shortage ; 30 million
tourists/pilgrims in Uttarakhand at the time of tragedy; 70 Hydroelectric projects in worst
affected Char Dham area; 505 dams in Uttarakand state
Though parts of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in India, some
regions of Western Nepal, and Western Tibet also experienced heavy rainfall, over 95% of
the casualties occurred in four districts out of thirteen in Uttarakhand:
i.

Rudraprayag

ii.

Chamoli

iii.

Uttarkashi

iv.

Pithoragarh

Uttarkashi District

Uttarkashi is district is famous for a number of ashrams and temples and also to the Nehru
Institute of Mountaineering. Further , the Yamuna and The Ganga are the biggest rivers in
Uttarkashi district
Uttarkashi town is in Garhwal Lesser Himalaya and is situated south of the Main Central
Thrust (MCT) which passes near Sainj. The district is located highly sesimo-tectonically
active zone (seismic zone V) of the Himalaya. The main central thrust and the main
boundary thrust lines are passing through the district. The MCT zone has witnessed two
major earthquakes since 1991. The epicenter of the 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake was in the
Agoda village of Uttarkashi town.
Further , it is vulnerable to following disasters based on its history

1. Earthquake
Date / Year

Place

Intensity

22,May,1803

Uttarkashi

6.0

20,October1991

Uttarkashi

6.6

Village Jamak and Agora was

main focal point of the
earthquake disaster
March,1999

Uttarkashi

4.5

16,August,2005

Uttarkashi

4.8

14,December,2005

Uttarkashi

5.2

2. Excessive Rain and Cloud Burst -Landslide-Flood

1978 - Uttarkashi Ganga

1999 - Uttarkashi Indravati (tributary)

Sept 2003- Uttarkashi Jalkur (tributary)

2011- Uttarkshi- Tehri Ganga

Bansal and Mathur (1976) have estimated that on an average the major landslides in the
Himalaya result in an annual loss of more than 50,000 man hours and 5000 vehicle hours
per kilometer of road per year due to disruption of communication alone.

3. Forest Fire
As more than 88% of the total area of the district is covered by forest, during summers
there are large cases of forest fire reported in this district
New Didsari
New Didsari is located in Bhatwari Tehsil OF Uttarkashi district . Its was formed out of the
Didsari(now Old Didsari) village after the 1991 earthquake. There are 115 Houses in both

houses with 56 in New Didsari and 69 Old Didsari village. The nearby villages to New
Didsari are Baina , Wayra May Lunthu, Jamak, Maneri and Kamar.

Disaster Timeline
On 16th June 2013, it started raining heavily from morning hours , leading to flood by
evening . Following the washing away of the land by the Bhagirathi river , people started
moving away from the village . Some broke into the nearest Primary School located above
hills , others went into huts in forests and nearby Lunthuru village.
Between 17th June and 20th June, people witnessed washing away of more than 20 houses
Panchayat Bhavan, Anganwadi and the bridge connecting Maneri town being washed away
from Didsari Village . As the major connection with mainland was cutoff people used
school Mid day Meal Rations . Later , they made a path through the hiils which connected
them to the Jammak village and then to other major townships.
After 20th June , the roads opened , people started receiving supplies through Jammak
village. Later people who took shelter were relocated to Maneri Power Plant Colony. It also
saw large number of major organization like Oxfam, Tata and Reliance foundations coming
for relief activities.
After 2 months of the disaster PWD constructed a walkway through the riverbank costing
an estimated 5 Lakh rupees . People as of then have started coming back to their village.
Relief Operation
Government response
Government initiated Search -Rescue - Evacuation operations with help of army personnel.
It provided vehicles to ferry the stranded, Rs 2000, free bus and train tickets , special
bogies, free accommodation at government tourist homes to rescued person

Relief Operations of government included opening up of Emergency Operation Centre

Missing Persons Cell-Registration Camps for reporting missing person, opening up of 72
Relief Camps , releasing helicopters for airdropping of relief and provision of adequate
Rice,Wheat,Sugar , Petrol, Diesel and LPG Supplies
Under Reconstruction and Restoration, road ,water supply and electricity connections were
restoration, government announced compensation in various categories: Rs. 200,000 for
fully damages houses; Rs. 50,000 for partially damaged houses
Nongovernmental Organizations
Different major NGOs that are working in New Didsari following the disaster included:
1.

Sri Bhuvaneshawari Mahela Ashram- Plan

Started since 1991 earthquake, SBMA works with Women groups

2.

Reliance Foundation's Mission Rahat

3.

Tata Companies

4.

Gandhi Ashram , Ahmadabad for the reconstruction and functioning of

Anganwadis

5.

Oxfam provided transitional shelter

6.

Covenant Social Service ,Pune who provided services and later appointed a
youth leader in the community to update on the improvement in the community

7.

Action Aid

Different NGOs provide following materials to the people:

Solar lamps (which comes with mobile charging points)

Ration Cooking ingredients like Oil, salt, match box etc

Plastic sheets/ Tripals

Utensils

Female sanitary products e.g. Sanitary napkins

Water purification products e.g. chlorine drops

Infrastructural Loss and Aftermath in New Didsari

Housing: 20 houses have been washed away, out of which 18 were pucca houses and 2
were kutchha houses.
Government buildings: Anganwaadi, Panchayat Bhawan and Pradhan Karyalaya were
swept away by the floods.
Bridge: A 20-year old cement bridge was washed away which connected the village to the
town of Maneri. This bridge was villages lifeline as it shortened the distance of travel for
the community members by up to 3 kilometers. This bridge was 5 feet wide and could
manage the weight of up to 50-60 people at a time. Two wheelers could also pass over the
bridge.
Religious buildings: A temple was washed away and another has been immersed with silt.
Irrigation Channels: The villages irrigation channels suffered minor damage but the
farmland for which it was utilized on has now been swept away.
Schools: Rajikiye Inter-college was swept away
Field: More than 700 Naalis were swept away by river Ganga. 1 Naali is equivalent to 240
square yard. The produce was consumed by the community members and was not sold in
the market.
Hospital: District Hospital is in Uttarkashi and a local hospital is situated in Maneri Colony.
The local hospital charges Rs 5 as consultation fees for APL families and none by BPL
families. Both the hospitals are a good distance away from the village. This causes problem
for the aged community members as they are unable to take up the journey.
Electricity: The electricity was cut off from the village for more than two months and only
returned back in the month of September.
Condition of the houses: Every house in the village has been marred with leakage and
seepage issues with cracks all over the ceiling of the houses.

Human Resource: The young community members have migrated off to nearby cities and
towns leaving behind old community members to look after themselves. The village lost
more than 700 Naalis of land which led to unemployment for the members thus forcing
them to move out for better employment opportunities.
Only 10-12 families remain in the village now and others have migrated
Problems faced by the community members
Monetary Issues: The meager compensation received from the state government has been
spent utilized on emergency felt needs like clothing etc. As the community members have
no field to produce crops on, the community members are on the verge of a financial crisis.
Construction of Houses: The material needed to build a house is brought from Uttarkashi
on trucks and Khachars. A brick costs Rs 8-9 and one sack of cement costs Rs 400. The
money provided as compensation by the government is not enough to build a new house in
the community. One Acre land in the village costs Rs 2 lakh.
Distance: The distance to the town of Maneri has increased for the community members.
Especially for the children as it takes them up to 90 minutes to reach their school.
Travel Expense: The travel expense has increased over the last three months by up to
15%
Anganwaadi and Panchayat Bhawan: Since the Anganwaadi had been washed away in
the floods, a makeshift Anganwaadi has been set up in the village but it has not returned
back to normalcy leading to irregular education sessions for the children aged 0-6 years.
There has been no Gram Sabhas in the community.
Accommodation in Maneri Colony: Out of 20 families that lost their houses in the flood,
only 6 families got flats in the colony. The rest of the families either left the villages or lives
with relatives or neighbours. Caste based allocation of flats were observed as Rajput
families were accommodated in the colony but not all of them lost their houses. Only one
Harijan family from New Didsari lives in the colony.

Straight Climbing: The roads in Maneri Colony are straight and steep which causes
problems for the aged and elderly as they are not able to travel outside and are mostly
stuck inside the colonies.
Caste Based Division: The Harijans were accommodated in a school for two months. The
school has 4 rooms on upper floor and 6 rooms on lower floor. 4-5 families stayed in each
room and there were total 22 SC families. Not all rooms were open for community
members. The livestock had to be kept outside and one member from each family slept
outside with the livestock to protect them from harm. Pandits and Rajputs found places to
stay with relatives and friends. It was observed that Harijans were not allowed to enter
temples.
Conflict amongst community members in Old and New Didsari: According to the
community members in New Didsari, the monetary compensation has been received in
considerable quantity while the community members in Old Didsari have received
compensation only for the field that they lost. This has resulted into tensions between both
villages as community members in Old Didsari are requesting more compensation from the
state government.
Corrupt Officials: The Patwari of a village is an official who has a registered list of the land
of the community members. After the flood, according to community members in New
Didsari, Patwari was bribed by certain members to show more land in the list than one
earlier had, to claim for more compensation from the government while the ones who
could not provide money to Patwari were given less compensation because they could not
procure Patwaris signature on their original length of the land.
Location: The location of the village makes the community members vulnerable as it is
situated between landslides and river Ganga. Overflow of river or landslides can
completely destruct the village. The community members have decided to leave the village
before the monsoon season of next year.

Situation of Health and Psycho-social Analysis

Another important aspect to study regarding the disaster that affected Uttarakhand was
the effect on health of the people, and also the psycho-social impact on their lives. The
various aspects of such impact have been discussed below.
1.

Mobility Mapping

With the help of the local denizens of the village, health mobility map was prepared for the
village. The map showcases the number of health services (Government and private) and
distance of these services from the village, i.e. the accessibility and availability of health
related services in the village.
Through interaction with villagers, it was found that in case of health-related issue, the first
health service that the villagers visit is the local PHC which is approximately 5 km from the
village. The primary level of treatment is been provided by this local PHC. It is a stategovernment run 4 bedded health care centre. The doctor at the centre informed on a daily
basis around 50-60 patients receive medicines through its OPD service, which increased to
200-250 at the time of disaster. The doctor also revealed that at the time of disaster, the
centre was open 24*7 and also with the help of NGOs 4-5 health camps were organised in
the village. She informed that apart from cases of diarrhoea, eye-flu was the major disease
that spread in the village after the disaster. For severe cases, the patient is either referred
to district hospital (Uttarkashi) or to hospital in Dehradun which are at a distance of 20 and
300 kms from the village, respectively. Below is the Mobility Map prepared as per the data
collected from the villagers

It was also observed that villagers had more faith in allopathic medicines than ayurvedic.
Most of the villagers said that they prefer taking medicines from Bhatt Ji, a local pharmacist
who runs a chemist shop which is approximately 6 kms from the village. If required he also
makes home visits, especially in case of elderly population, and charges around Rs. 500 per
visit. It was found that people preferred paying this amount to the local pharmacist than
visiting a government hospital in order to obtain medicines.
There were also two ASHA workers in the village that along with ANM was responsible for
carrying out deliveries inside the homes. They were also responsible for distributing
medicines and promoting family planning in the village. They motivated both men and
women to undergo sterilization after they had 2-3 children and also organised camps and
meetings on a monthly basis to conduct and promote the same. ASHA worker informed that
the percentage of men undergoing sterilization is almost negligible. She said that the health
problems have quadrupled after the disaster, with skin allergies, eye-flu and diarrhoea the
major ones. She further revealed that the quality of biscuits and milk powder that was

distributed in the village after the disaster by the government was much degraded that led
to outburst of major stomach infections amongst the villagers, especially children.
It was also observed that apart from these NGOs, corporate bodies were also playing a
major role in providing health-related services and relief to the people. TATA, Reliance,
Manav Sadhan were some of the organisations that were working in the village postdisaster. They played a major role in distributing medicines and food grains to the local
population. They also organised health camps in the village after the disaster.

2.

Health Risk Assessment

The trainees consulted some of the village residents and requested them to help out in the
exercise of health risk assessment. With the help of the villagers, the trainees were able to
prepare a map of the village New Didsari on the ground (which was the broken terrace of
one of the houses). After drawing the map, the trainees then consulted the villagers and
identified which all were the groups which were most vulnerable during the disaster. The
groups identified were: infants and children upto the age of 10 years, pregnant women,
elderly, and chronically ill and/or physically disabled. These groups were identified on the
basis of villagers experience during the disaster. They told that when the disaster struck,
many households were given relief in the primary school of the village. During that period,
infants and young children suffered most as they contacted water borne diseases like
Diarrhoea, and other infectious diseases like Conjunctivitis (also known as Eye Flu). They
also suffered minor skin problems like rashes, burns etc. Another group that was identified
was the elderly primarily because of difficulty in mobility. They were mostly dependent on
the younger population to do their work. The trainees later met an old woman who
described the difficulties she was facing because of the floods as her house got damaged
and she and her family have been provided with temporary habitation in the Maneri
Colony. There were also a couple of pregnant women, and physically challenged people
who needed special care and attention during the disaster. After identifying the groups, the
households where the groups were concentrated were identified and located in the map.
This exercise was conducted to help the trainees understand who are in most need of relief

in case of a disaster, and where they are located so that relief can reach them at the
soonest. Such an exercise may prove useful in future disaster management operations.
A map to locate risk groups as prepared with the help of the village community is depicted
below

On having discussions with the villagers, the trainees discovered that during the relief work
after the disaster, the social aspect of caste played a crucial role. Those who belonged to
upper castes were given shelter in villagers houses, while those who belonged to lower
castes were given shelter in the primary school, and thus the lower caste population
suffered more than the higher castes. Because of such discrimination, the health needs of
those belonging to lower castes needed more attention. Thus, while doing health risk
assessment, such social aspects also need to be taken into account, and vulnerability
because of factors like caste, gender etc. needs to be considered in relief and rehabilitation
work.

3.

Psycho-social Impact

Disasters are events that alter the living patterns of communities they affect. A crucial
impact of any disaster is how it alters the mental health of the affected population which is
manifested in their behaviour, feelings etc. Thus, to study the impact of disaster on human
lives, psycho-social assessment is an important aspect.
In the village New Didsari, the trainees interacted with the residents to find out the psychosocial impact of the disaster on them. As mentioned before, the village of New Didsari is
geographically quite vulnerable to natural disasters like earthquakes, landslides, and
floods. The village has experienced some of the worst disasters in the past, and thus many
villagers live in the fear of being affected by such disasters. When the floods came on 16th
June, 2013, the villagers firstly thought that it wasnt the river.
While interacting with the elderly, the trainees discovered that the feeling of helplessness
was most palpable among them. This feeling was further accentuated by the kind of
response they received by various government authorities and their village governance.
Those, whose houses, and farms got damaged received a meagre compensation, and many
of them complained about it. The trainees also found that women were more inclined to
discuss about psycho-social factors as compared to men. Some of the women the trainees
interacted with said that they sometimes have flashbacks of the disaster situation, though
nightmares were not common. Two of the women trainees interacted with had lost their
homes as well as farms in the floods, and had tears in their eyes while explaining about the
disaster. Apart from these, in terms of emotions, anger especially on authorities for poor
relief provided was most visible.
The psycho-social impact of the disaster was felt by children as well. Some of the children
the trainees interacted with felt helpless and stated that they preferred to die. Thus, they
also showed the feelings of hopelessness. However, many others had by now adjusted to
their circumstances, and even got back to their school life. Getting back to school was
difficult for some as the bridge which connected the village to Maneri town was damaged,
and thus they had to travel quite a lot now to reach their school, but they still continued.

For most of the people, it was their social ties and help provided by fellow villagers that
made them cope with the disaster. Also, they did complain about governments response,
they appreciated the response and relief measures of NGOs, and that also acted as a coping
mechanism for them.
Though the community was obviously down in spirits after the disaster, in their
interactions, and observations the trainees could not find any major signs of post disaster
trauma, and most of the residents had started to get back to making their life normal.
The major impact of the disaster has been for those twenty households which lost their
shelter as well as livelihood, and also for those who lost their farms. For them moving to
Maneri or other nearby towns is probably the only option left as there is difficulty in
getting land for building new houses, and the lost farms cannot be brought back. While they
try to build the broken pieces of their life, their faith and devotion towards the river has not
gone down and they still consider it as their mother, and feel that the disaster was only
her small wrath on her children.
The residents of New Didsari even after suffering a lot have their spirit intact and continue
to struggle. Their struggle is visible in their daily activities like travelling more than five
kilometres instead of the usual few meters walk to reach their schools, local clinic, etc. after
the bridge which was their lifeline got destroyed in the floods. Though for many, the life
may not be like before again, the strength with which the community has faced the disaster
is something which deserves much appreciation.

Recommendations
Building the bridge The bridge connecting the village to Maneri Town was the lifeline of
the village. It has to be constructed again and should be done in the advent of time.
Higher education / medical facilities- Schools and Hospitals are away from the village
which causes problems for the children and the elderly
Relocation to upper plains or another place- It has been brought up by the community
members that their village is located on a high alert area and migrating to nearby cities and

towns can protect them from future damage or loss of live. Government should provide
relocation to these families.
Disaster Preparedness and Warning System- Disaster management is the discipline of
dealing with and avoiding both natural and manmade disasters. It involves preparedness,
response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters
Controlling blasts for dam, rate of deforestation, building activities
Sustainable Livelihood programs- Possibilities of starting Orchards in the village hilly
lands for Uttarkshi is famous , Organic farming in link with animal husbandry etc.