Nepal after the earthquake

Gulf News

Nepal after the earthquake. Gulf News reporter Anjana Sankar journeys through Nepal to bring us a glimpse of the devastation caused by the earthquake that shook the country on April 25th, 2015. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00Traveling through Nepal, two weeks after a devastating earthquake shook the country on

00:17April 25th, what I saw was chilling scenes of destruction everywhere.

00:23The scenic landscapes of this popular tourist destination stood in stark contrast to the

00:29horrific images of broken buildings, flattened villages and displaced people.

00:36As I reached Sindhupalchowk, one of the worst hit areas in rural Nepal, there were hundreds

00:43of families who lost their homes and had been without shelter for weeks.

00:48I moved through crowds and made my way through the rubble.

00:53Everyone I spoke to had similar stories to tell, of losing everything they had.

01:00People were desperate because they had not received any help from the government.

01:24There is no money to build a house, there is no food to eat, everything has fallen apart.

01:37There is nothing left here, everyone's house has been demolished, only a few are left.

01:48We have made a small tent here.

01:53Where did you get the tent from?

01:55We made it ourselves.

02:01As children played in the ruins, villagers were trying to clear the rubble and make temporary

02:07shelters with tin and plastic sheets.

02:10Their big fear was they would still be homeless when the rainy season starts.

02:18NGOs were distributing turpulence for the affected families, and that was the only relief

02:24effort present there.

02:26This is an aid distribution point in Shwale village in Sindhupalchowk district.

02:32We were told that out of the 7,700 people who have died, more than 3,000 are from this

02:38district.

02:39More than 50,000 people are living under the open sky since last two weeks.

02:45What you can see in the background is Plan International and NGO is distributing temporary

02:51tents and turpulence to these families.

02:54The far-flung villages were the worst affected because access to these areas is difficult.

03:01Many roads were cut off due to landslides triggered by the earthquake.

03:05I passed UN World Food Programme trucks packing sacks of rice bound for Kavri, another heavily

03:13affected district.

03:15These poor families were living in the open air and had been surviving on aid food packets.

03:23The situation was as bad in the cities.

03:33In Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, tents had sprung up everywhere.

03:39After the second quake battered Nepal on May 12th, hundreds of buildings had collapsed.

03:45People had left their homes to live outdoors.

03:51In Bhaktapur, I found many residential areas that had been completely destroyed and families

03:58had fled to garment-run relief camps.

04:01In one deserted building, I stumbled upon an old woman who had decided not to leave.

04:09This is a sample of the scale of destruction left behind by the earthquake.

04:15In this area, we have found at least dozens of residential complexes like this which has

04:20been completely damaged.

04:28I'm standing in front of a temporary shelter in Bhaktapur, almost 17 kilometres from Kathmandu.

04:35In the backdrop, you can see damaged houses.

04:38Most of these people have been living there and they say now they can't go back home.

05:06This is a crack.

05:08The killer quake had also damaged the country's centuries-old heritage sites and temples.

05:14Many of the UNESCO's World Heritage Sites in Kathmandu's Darbar Square lay in ruins.

05:22Military personnel were standing guard to protect the valuable artefacts from being stolen.

05:29Far away in the Himalayan foothills, the aftermath of the earthquake had also taken its toll.

05:36I flew to Lukla, a popular trekking village close to the Mount Everest base camp.

05:42Once a trekker's paradise, the place looked deserted.

05:47After the avalanche in the Himalayas, tourists have stopped coming, leaving the Sherpa guides jobless.

05:54The local residents are living in tents and are left with nothing to fall back on.

06:02Even as the government and international aid agencies are ramping up relief and reconstruction,

06:08it will take years for Nepal to recover.

06:14The grit and resilience of its people will be put to test as they begin to rebuild their country.

06:21Anjana Shankar, for Gulf News.

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