Death stares at the living too in Orissa
From T.V. Lakshminarayan
Tribune News Service

ERASAMA (Orissa), Nov 14 — The dead are rotting and the living are on the verge of death in the cyclone-battered Erasama block in coastal Orissa.

It is a gory sight in Erasama of Jagatsinghpur district, which alone has accounted for more than 8,000 of the over 9,400 deaths reported so far.

Amidst the stench of decaying, water-soaked bodies and floating carcasses of animals lying in the flooded paddy fields, one can see semi-clad women, children and men roaming through the make-shift road, prepared by the Army, in search of food, clothing and medical help.

"I have barely managed to eat anything till today", Anand Behara, an old man in his seventies says a full 15 days after the super cyclone hit coastal Orissa.

As if to prove his point he lifted his tattered shirt to reveal what appeared like a small crater in his stomach. But for the thin lining of dark skin, he looked literally like a walking skeleton.

Tales of death, destruction and misery are all one can hear from people in this area. The scene around Erasama confirms it.

This correspondent saw, barely a few hundred metres from the block headquarters, the shattered remains of what appeared to be a thatched hut. Four bamboo poles, which must have outlined the dwelling and a saree tied to one of them were all that remained. Inside was the slipper of a small girl. A rubber toy of an animal, with its head severed indicated that the girl must have been playing at the time the winds swept her away.

A curious bystander trying to be helpful informed that the body of another child, perhaps from the same family, was lying in the fields, some hundred metres away. As one waded through knee-deep water in the fields, the body of a small child was clearly visible. Attempts to retrieve the body with the help of a small piece of cloth proved futile as to put it in the villager’s words "the baby was melting" (like all decaying bodies do).

Venturing further into the watery grave, one could see a decaying torso of a corpse, and two bloated bodies of teenage girls held by the branches of a fallen tree.

These horrifying sights are clear indication that the figures on the death toll released by government are far from reality and the final count could run into a few more thousands.

Fortunately, all dead are not lying unattended. Volunteers of Anand Marg from Purulia district in West Bengal have taken up the onerous task of cremating the bodies. The state government claims it has also pressed into service hundreds of sweepers to dispose of the bodies.

The decaying corpses are brought to the roadside and set afire with a bottle of kerosene and some wood. The job is not perfect though, and the place is littered with half-burnt bodies and intact skulls. Even as the bodies are cremated, there are no people to cry over them as the living are busy trying to survive.

"Ami deo, ami deo" (give me, give me) cries rent the air as children, women, old men and women line up along the bumpy roads winding their way of the interior villages, in the hope that someone will hear them.

Every time a truck loaded with relief material reaches the site, hundreds of people rush to it and mob the volunteers distributing food and clothing. Since the crowd is not organised the volunteers end up throwing the relief material and in the mad scramble to grab it, it is invariably the fittest and the strongest who manage to grab everything. The old and the infirm, the women and children are deprived.

Badami Behra of Dhenkya village laments that she had three sons but none of them was coming to her help. Her sons having their own families to support have simply dumped her.

It is mostly voluntary organisations and NGOs, who are organising relief work. The official store house of relief material at the block headquarters is over-flowing with goods but distribution had yet to pick up.

A government official at the storehouse said they have been distributing chivra (rice flakes), rice, and maki ka atta to the villagers.

Bajra flour, donated by some agencies in the USA, is coming handy as the villagers dissolve it in water and consume it along with gur. The flour paste swells inside the stomach and gives a feeling of "heaviness".

Apart from food, old clothes brought in by various relief trucks is also much in demand.

For 40-year-old Gowri Jena, who got an old saree, distributed by volunteers of Asaramji Ashram in Allahabad, her new possession means she can finally change her dress after 15 days. Barring the single piece of cloth on her body, she lost all her belongings to the tidal waves that visited her house in Dhenkiya village on the fateful night of October 29.

Inadequate medical facilities are also plaguing the ill-fated villagers. Hundreds of people are suffering from diarrhoea and with timely help not forthcoming, many are on the verge of of death.

According to a doctor in the Anand Marg camp, Dr Bhaskar, the diarrhoea was being caused by impure water. With clean drinking water unavailable, people were forced to drink the same water in which dead bodies and carcasses were floating.

To our readers
Orissa cyclone relief: an appeal

Never has Orissa seen death, devastation and disruption of life on such a scale as the supercyclone has caused. Lush paddy fields have turned into watery graves for human beings and cattle. Everybody has lost the count of the lives lost. Efforts are on to save the starving, the marooned and the disease-hit.

It is a national calamity and the nation has to come to Orissa's aid. Next to manpower, Orissa needs money to rebuild life brick by brick. Millions of rupees are required to reconstruct the ruined huts and vanished roads; to clear the sand-filled streams and canals; and to feed those who have lost their hearth and home. The money has to come from each one of us. It has to go from one Indian to another Indian.

Remember Kargil and the spontaneous national expression of support and solidarity? India has to recapture the spirit and join the battle that the cyclone-hit people of Orissa are fighting. It is not their battle alone. The magnitude of their suffering has made it a national mission. It is a common fight — theirs, yours and ours. Nay, it is more than a fight; it is a challenge and an opportunity to reassert the ancient belief that India is one big, well-knit family and no member is ever alone in joy or sorrow.

We appeal to the readers to rise to the occasion as they did during the Kargil crisis and donate liberally. They should mail crossed cheques or bank drafts/ banker's cheques/ certified cheques payable at Bhubaneswar, favouring "The Orissa Chief Minister's Relief Fund", to the Tribune Office, Sector 29-C, Chandigarh, India. We shall forward these to the authorities concerned who will issue receipts directly to the contributors. Contributions are exempt from income tax under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act.

The names of the donors contributing Rs 500 and above will be published in the Tribune group of newspapers.

Editor
The Tribune