Winter is much harder to pass than monsoon for those lacking proper shelter and warm clothes, adds Krishna Kumari Pandey. She claimed that earthquake displaced were not able to sleep these days. "We are passing our nights with the help of the warmth from firewood. We have bonfire till 11 in the night. But cold gets even bitter after that and having sound sleep in such a cold is not possible," said Pandey, a local of Babare village.
“It's hard to sleep as the cottage absorbs dew. Quilts or blankets, cloths all gets soaked in water," said Nepali. "It's better to sit around fire whole night," he added. Sun rises late in Pandey and Nepali's localities. The warmth hardly blesses them before nine o'clock.
Sumeru mountain is not far from their area and the snow wind directly affects them. "Our worry everyday is how to spend the rest of the time when the sun sets around 3 o'clock in the evening. Night comes as a nightmare," said Pandey.
According to another local of Babare village Bhimsen Pandey, the winter has hit so hard that it has been becoming very hard to keep the children and elderly people in the villages warm. People in every next door are coughing and sneezing. "My kids are suffering from all this, too. Though they are getting treatment from health post, it's hardly working," he said adding that all the people would have died had there been no firewood.
Birkha Bahadur Thami of the same village stated that their survival is still under threat. We are able to stretch our bodies only in the afternoon. "Or else, we need to gather around fire. But the sun sets quite early," he said.
Thami added that the situation of earthquake victims living in higher altitudes is even worse. According to him, elderly people in those areas are having asthma and swelling of hands and feet. "This is common in Basthali, Baalok, Mathhilo Tapuwa, Sisneri, among other villages," he said. "They have no access to health care or medicines. Imagine the situation."
Meanwhile, Pandey stated that the earthquake victims in her village are yet to get Rs 10,000 relief promised by the government for warm clothes. "We hear quake victims in other places have already received it. But we have not seen any movement in that regard in our locality," she complained.
According to Sita Pariyar, Local Development Officer, informed that the distribution was underway but had been sluggish in absence of VDC secretaries.
Photo caption : Earthquake victims of Babare village in Dolakha gather around fire in this recent picture. In lack of warm clothes and home, quake victims make bonfire as soon as the sun sets to save them from the cold.
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