Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, July 15

Survivors of the Boh valley landslide in Dharamsala have detailed the horror of the moment it struck on July 12, leaving nine persons dead and one missing.

Vijay Kumar (40) was taken out alive from beneath his crumbled house, four hours after the mudslide tore through its walls. “It was terrifying. People were screaming,” said Vijay, employed with a private power project. He said as it was raining heavily since early morning, he was trying to clear an overflowing drain outside his house at about 11 am.

“A ‘nullah’ adjacent to our house got choked and water started flowing down the mountainside. Small stones and muck started sliding down initially. Before I could react, a major landslide brought down whatever came its way,” he said. Admitted to the Civil Hospital in Shahpur with fractured legs, Vijay said he tried to rush inside his house to alert his family, but was swept off his verandah. “There was a deafening noise and all went dark. When I regained consciousness, I found myself stuck neck-deep in muck. I couldn’t even move my hands, but could breathe. There was about 1.5-ft distance between my head and the concrete roof that had collapsed,” said a visibly shaken Vijay.

Vijay said what gave him courage was that he could hear his wife Kanchana and elder daughter Vanshika screaming for help from inside the house. The couple’s 18-month-old younger daughter Shabnam, however, was buried alive.

“Vanshika had access to a mobile phone and she called up her teacher. Our neighbours soon launched a rescue operation and tore through the roof of our house, pulling us out alive,” he said.

His wife, who too is admitted to the hospital, said they had never expected that a hillside could slide down like this. “We couldn’t save Shabnam. The grief is unbearable,” said Kanchana, sobbing incessantly.