Namgel´s wife Somati Gurung, 80, son Min Bahadur Gurung, 40, daughter-in-law Kanishya Gurung, 32; and granddaughters Tikamaya Gurung, 14, and Manmaya Gurung, 12, were buried after the landslide struck his house. [break]
Namgel survived the tragedy and was rescued by the police. The bodies of his wife and granddaughters have been recovered from the debris. The bodies of his son and daughter-in-law are yet to be found.
Similarly, Dhan Bahadur Gurung, whose house was also flattened by the landslide, survived and was rescued by the police. But his wife Tal Maya Gurung, 62, and daughter-in-law Dilmaya Gurung died.
Dhan Bahadur is receiving treatment in Kathmandu, while Namgel is being treated in Dhading, the police said.
Of Namgel´s entire family, only a grandson, who left for Malaysia on Saturday, remains.
Both the families no longer have any shelter, as the landslide destroyed their houses and cattle sheds. The landslide also swept away the cattle sheds of Ash Bahadur Gurung, Hari Bahadur Gurung, Thainurbu Gurung and Pal Bahadur Gurung, apart from damaging their houses.
“All we had were the cattle sheds and the cattle. Nothing has been left now,” Ash Bahadur told the police.
The landslide buried over two dozen cattle.
Lok Bahadur Gurung, a local said, it had been raining for 10 days. But the villages had not suspected that a landslide would strike, he added.
Villagers came to know only at 2 am that landslide had flattened the two houses of their neighbors. Police reached the village at 6 am after the locals informed the police about the tragedy.
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