Amit Sharma
The recent continuous rain throughout the country, the floods and damage it is causing reminds me of the “7th of September 2014”, the day river Jhelum breached into our lives. The rains in September 2014 had nothing unusual for most of us in the Kashmir Valley “a Paradise on Earth”. As I and my wife were posted in Kashmir Valley, we had a rented accommodation on first floor, at Raj Bagh, my mother and maternal grandparents were with us to look after our, one and half year old daughter. On 6th September, I went to Hat trick shop near the Zero Bridge, to buy food items, the river Jhelum was swelled. I came back and checked on the Google Earth to know the elevation of the hat trick shop and the Raj Bagh area. It gave me shivering, that the Raj Bagh was at much lower elevation and what if the bund is breached, but there was no panic situation in the neighborhood. At around 5:15 am of 7th of September, we heard noises in the street and saw flooding of the street, “the Kursu Bund” was breached. Still, unaware of the seriousness of the “Fall of the Bund” and the coming hardships, I started taking photographs.
Seeing the floating LPG cylinder, my wife said we are lucky that we are in first floor, not realizing, that in the next 40 minutes the first floor too will be submerged under the cold, muddy water of Jhelum River. And that was the time when I told my mother to start stacking the food items, fill the water bottles, other items like medicines, plier, screw drivers, hammer, torch, , matchboxes, blankets, garden plastic water pipe etc. at one place. As, the river water touched the floor, the family climbed to the wooden roof, space below the GT sheet roof. There was a feeling of helpless and hopeless, the Jhelum water was just 4 -5 inches below us and we were sitting on wooden roof which was 2-3 inches thick.
The space was full of droppings of the pigeon and it was very suffocating, nothing in mind and none of us could control the emotions. I decided to remove the GT sheets and make some opening for the fresh air. The hammer, screw driver and plier was quite useful and thanks to the Direct Deputed Range (DDR) Officer Training at Uttarakhand Forest Training Academy and the NCC “A, B, C” level trainings. I removed the tin sheets towards neighbors side, who were standing on the roof which was of concrete, at a distance of 8-9 feet. I thought that in case our wooden roof collapses, I will throw my daughter to them, at least one of our family members could be saved. There were few wooden planks, I told my neighbor Mr. Bajaz, that I will make a bridge and will shift my family on your roof, all agreed. Luckily, the lengthiest plank was almost 12 feet and rest were shorter, but I was able to make a bridge using the nails that were removed from the roof.
Seeing the anxiety in my family members, one of the members of Mr. Bajaz family crossed the bridge to check whether the bridge will be able to hold on the weight. And none of the members of Mr. Bajaz family objected, to risk his life for the strangers. He crossed the bridge and took my daughter safely to his house and then we all crossed the bridge. I cut the electricity service line and used the garden plastic water pipe to tie the family members while crossing the bridge.
The night of 7th September was spent under the “roof of stars” and “over the sea” of Jhelum water. Next morning, we waved to the helicopter rescuing the people, even my daughter learnt to wave and shout “bachaoo bachaoo”, but we were not lucky enough to have a helicopter ride.
In the afternoon, a person looking for his relative in a rubber boat, came to us and took one of the sons of Mr. Bajaz up to the Zero Bridge, from where he arranged a boat to rescue us and brought everyone up to the Zero Bridge. Though the boat came to rescue us but who will go first was the point of arguments, mother wanted to go in the last, wife wanted to go with me, nana ji and nani ji could not be sent together as they both were old and tired. Today, I do not remember how it was decided who will go first, but Mr. Bajaz gave priority to my family. After crossing the zero bridge, the TRC area and JK bank head office was also submerged. Somehow I was able to get space for my grandparents, wife and daughter in the boat but I and my mother was dropped because a dead body was brought, which was taken to Dal gate for burial in the same boat. Finally we all reached at the house of Mr. Bajaz’s relative, where we stayed for the night.
On 9th of September, we all walked through the Gupkar road and reached near entrance of Governor house. The grandparents were tired so they sat on the roadside. The locals were distributing the food, my daughter who never liked curd, had two plastic bowl of curd that day and till date she love to eat packed curd.
There I meet one policeman, who had aircell number and for the first time I spoke to my father and others even they must have gone through the worst and painful time of their lives. I assured him that all are fine “meaning alive’, father wanted to talk with everyone but it was not possible as the battery was low. The CRPF men posted outside the entrance of the Governor House, arranged the blankets and quilts for our stay in the guard watch tower. At around 9:30 pm the CRPF men came with dinner, water and a glass of milk for my daughter. The next morning, myself, my wife and daughter started walking towards the Nishat, leaving others in the watch tower, with the hope to find any one of the staff of Dachigam National Park. We saw people of all ages standing in queue and waiting for their turn to be airlifted, all tensed and exhausted. It took us one hour to reach IG CRPF office near Nishat, there a man requested us to come to his house to have a cup of tea and milk for the daughter, we went to his house, which was already full of flood victims. I left my daughter and wife there in his house at Brane, whose name I not able to recall now but his son Mr. Sheikh Uzair turned out to be wildlife enthusiast. All of us had finest hospitality that one can ever expect from the strangers and that too at a time when each grain matters. I requested him to arrange a vehicle up to Dachigam and there stayed in the house of Mr. Nazir Mir (wildlife photographer of the department). He was the first person with whom I have visited the anterior forests of the national park as Probationer Range Officer.
On 14th September we moved towards Leh in the Enova taxi, travelling throughout the night and at Kargil, we took dinner in the BRO mess. At around 7:00 am on 15th September reached Leh and stayed in our relative’s house. On 16th got the reservation in the special flight from Leh to Delhi for the flood victims and the connecting flight from Delhi to Jammu. At around 4:15 pm we reached at Jammu airport, the whole family was gathered there to welcome, thus putting an ending to almost nine days of physical, mental and emotional trauma, with a prayer that it should not happen to anyone.
Almost after six years, the memories are still fresh and I still remember that even the cash in hand, the gold we were wearing or the debit/credit cards we were carrying were useless; it was only the humanity that worked breaking all the barriers of religion/region/caste/class. Otherwise the loss of lives would have been in thousands, had the locals on the first place and latter on the government agencies and forces would not have come to the rescue. This small write up is dedicated to all those who had suffered and lost the loved ones to the nature’s furry and calamities.
(The author is Assistant Conservator of Forests)
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