Kathmandu, Nov 5: A powerful earthquake that struck the mountainous region of western Nepal on Saturday night left thousands of people there without a place to sleep in the bitter cold. The earthquake claimed 157 lives and left a path of ruin. After the 6.4-magnitude earthquake in the Jajarkot district’s Nalgad Municipality shook her home on Friday night around midnight, Bhawana Pun still remembers the horror that kept her up on Saturday night as well. She heard her neighbours who were sleeping outside snoring the entire night, as well as the sounds of traffic on the road. She lacked the bravery to enter the fractured house since aftershocks were happening. “The houses have sustained significant damage as a result of the earthquake.” People are therefore sitting outside of their homes,” a local from Jajarkot, the epicentre of the nation’s most catastrophic earthquake since 2015, stated. The areas of western Nepal’s Rukum and Jajarkot, some 500 kilometres northwest of Kathmandu, were most severely struck by the earthquake. The earthquake caused injuries to about 253 individuals. The National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Centre in Nepal reported that approximately 159 aftershocks were registered on Saturday.First aid has been delivered by the Ministry of Home Affairs using Army helicopters. Along with a medical team, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” visited the earthquake-affected area on Saturday. He examined the impacted locations and obtained information regarding the degree of the damage during the visit. He later brought the seven injured persons and their families back to Surkhet from Jajarkot. In the wake of the terrible earthquake, the Nepali government has stated that it is not in a rush to seek outside assistance for search and rescue operations, relief distribution, and other logistical needs. During the visit to the earthquake-affected districts, Prachanda stated, “We are yet to make any decision on accepting foreign aid.”A government secretary told the Kathmandu Post that the nation is capable of handling the catastrophe’s repercussions. “We have an adequate supply of the logistical supplies we were given during the Covid-19 pandemic. For relief and rehabilitation, we have ample materials and staff with the necessary training,” the secretary stated. A special aid package for the earthquake victims is anticipated to be decided upon at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, which Prime Minister Prachanda is expected to chair. On Saturday, the government decided to give the districts of Jajarkot and Rukum West each Rs. 50 million in order to assist the victims with immediate help.Following the Cabinet meeting on Sunday, there will be a meeting of the disaster management committee. Teams for search and rescue activities have been activated by state security agencies in cooperation with local authorities and humanitarian organisations in the wake of the earthquake. For rescue operations, almost 4,000 members of the Nepal Army, the Armed Police Force, and the Nepal Police have been stationed in various areas of the Jajarkot and Rukum districts. Numerous volunteers from various organisations, including the Nepal Red Cross Society, have been enlisted.Brigadier General Krishna Bhandari, the spokesperson for the Nepal Army, stated that troops from three battalions, together with medical and aviation teams, had been dispatched to the two districts that were most severely affected by the earthquake. There are between 800 and 1,000 soldiers in a battalion. Many of the soldiers who have been called into action are skilled in responding quickly and looking for survivors of collapsed buildings.On the first day, our main priority was conducting search and rescue efforts. We will emphasise search and rescue for a few more days because the first 72 hours are thought to be the golden period [for a successful recovery], the Nepal Army spokesperson Brigadier General Krishna Bhandari told the Kathmandu Post. “But from now on, relief distribution will also go hand in hand.” The Army is airlifting the wounded and dead while also transferring rescue and medical crews to affected areas utilising five aircraft, including a Sky Truck. The spokesperson for the Nepal Police, Deputy Inspector General Kuber Kadayat, stated that hundreds of people have been impacted by the tragedy. Details on the affected have not yet been determined, though, as they were primarily concerned with search and rescue.“Once the search and rescue phase is over, we will start gathering data on the affected and the number of houses damaged or destroyed,” he said to the newspaper. Rescue teams had a tough time getting to the impacted areas because the earthquake caused bridge destruction and landslides in some areas. Nepal is prone to earthquakes because it is located on the ridge where the Tibetan and Indian tectonic plates meet. Every century, these plates move two metres closer to one another, causing pressure to build up and explode as an earthquake.
