Quake Death Toll Could Reach 100,000
B H U J, India, Jan. 29, 2001 -- The discovery of two living babies today —an 8-month-old boy covered in his dead mother's blood but cradledin her lap and a 7-month-old girl — captured the heartbreak and thesingular miracles of India's killer earthquake.
Survivors found in mountain of rubble
The rescues gave rare cause for hope following the earthquake,which killed at least 6,200 people and as many as 20,000 — or more.Damage was estimated at up to $5.5 billion. India's prime ministeracknowledged today his country was ill-prepared fordisasters.
In the boy's case, doctors said the warmth of his mother's bodyhelped him survive three days in the ruins of a collapsed buildingin Bhuj's Kansara Market.
"We saw the baby in the mother's lap, we saw some movement fromthe baby," said R.K. Thakur, a Border Security Forces assistantcommandant. "I took the baby in my hand and I found it wasalive."
The boy, Murtza Ali, was rushed to a medical center. Survivingrelatives were found and the child was later conscious and smiling,Thakur said, adding: "It was miraculous."
The girl, Sweta Kumar, was rescued from the rubble of her homein a town east of Bhuj. Hours later, her joyous mother and otherrelatives took turns holding her close.
There are few even partly happy endings in western India thesedays.
Hope for Survivors Dwindling
Survivors complained today that confusion and a lack ofequipment was hampering rescue efforts. Rescuers lacked cranes andbulldozers, and many units did not even have generators, makingnight work impossible without lights. Soldiers hunting forsurvivors began work at first light and stopped when the sun wentdown.
The hope of finding many more survivors "is dwindling hour byhour, but as long as there is hope, we won't give up," saidJoachim Ahrens, who represents a Swiss rescue team in Bhuj.
In the first estimate of damage, the Federation of IndianChamber of Commerce and Industry Secretary-General Amit Mitra saidquake losses may be as high as $5.5 billion besides a dailyproduction loss of $111 million. However, officials in Gujaratstate, epicenter of Friday's magnitude 7.9 quake, put the figure at$2.17 billion.
A grim-faced Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who touredGujarat today, said he was forming a national disaster agencyto ensure immediate response to emergencies.
"The country is not ready to face such disasters," Vajpayeetold reporters in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's economic hub. He alsoannounced federal grants totaling $108 million for the state.
The prime minister noted that when a cyclone killed 10,000people in the eastern state of Orissa two years ago, his governmenthad trouble responding. He said it was facing similar problems now.
"I'm here to express my solidarity with the Indian people,"Vajpayee said. "They are not alone in this."
In New Delhi today, Agriculture Minister Bhaskar Baruaappealed to private aid groups for field hospitals, clothing,volunteers to put up tents and prepare and distribute food, andcranes and other equipment.
As recently as Sunday, Barua said it was the policy of hisgovernment not to ask for foreign aid. But he said India wasthankful for the foreign help it had been offered.
International aid so far includes $5 million in emergencysupplies from the United States and $12 million in aid fromBritain.
Funeral Pyres for the Dead
More than 6,200 dead have been registered across western India,but officials in Bhuj believe between 15,000 and 20,000 people mayhave died here alone. Speaking to the British Broadcasting Corp. onMonday, Defense Minister George Fernandes estimated that as many as100,000 people may have died, with another 200,000 injured.
At the Lohna Samshran crematorium today, every effort wasmade to follow Hindu tradition for sending the quake's victims intothe next life with respect.
"All methodologies are followed," said Rasik Thakkar, whomanages the Lohna Shamshran. "Those without relations, we'll taketheir bodies, process them according to Sanskriti teachings, andtake them to Allahbad Sangram," a temple on the Ganges River,considered holy by Hindus.
Normally each body is placed on its own funeral pyre, but thathas not been the case since Friday. As many as 16 bodies were beingplaced on a single pyre and they were not being segregated bycaste.
By today, Thakkar and his workers had cremated 387 bodies andmore were being brought in by truck and stretcher. Despite theenormity of the task, most Hindu traditions were followed.
Grieving by the Thousands
Tears running down their faces, relatives shared their griefalong with the funeral pyres.
"We were very proud of our brother and his job," Damor BalawatNuvajubhai said, after placing 24-year-old Damor RajendrakumarNuvajubhai, his body wrapped in a bed sheet, on a pyre.
Rajendrakumar died while working as a nurse at the civilianhospital in Bhuj — one of 36 nurses killed when the buildingcollapsed.
His brother Balawat took a large can of clarified butter, knownin Hindi as ghee, and poured some onto the logs. He and his threeother brothers then sat on a stack of wood, quietly weeping for anhour until three other bodies were placed on the 3-foot-high highstack of wood.
Crematorium workers, wearing baseball caps and scarves overtheir mouths, placed more logs on top of the bodies and helpedrelatives of the victims start the fire and stoke it into a roaringblaze.
The only sound came from the crackle of the fire and the enginesof heavy trucks jamming the streets with relief supplies. The heatof the fire was so intense, no one could stand within 15 feet ofthe pyre.
Normally the Lohna Shamshran uses two crematoria, but after thequake began building pyres all around the building, on 12 sites.
Bhuj is located in a semi-desert with few trees, so officialshave called for donations of wood. Outside the Lohna Shamshran,trucks unloaded tons of lumber donated from all over India.
Elsewhere in India, fresh tremors panicked residents today, butthere were no reports damage beyond minor cracks in buildings. Amagnitude 4.3 quake was centered just outside Bangalore, 850 milessoutheast of Bhuj.