Uttarakhand glacier burst: ‘We helplessly watched our loved ones washed away’

北阿坎德邦冰川断裂：“我们眼睁睁地看着亲人被冲走”

A roar, a haze, a split second of stunned silence. And then, chaos.

巨响，阴霾，一瞬间的震惊和沉默，然后，一片混乱。

It was an exceptionally bright Sunday morning when Mahatami Devi, 42, stepped out of her house in Uttarakhand’s Jugju village to fetch firewood and cattle fodder from the neighbouring Raini village. One of her three sons, 17-year-old Ankit, was home at the time. “I met her around 8am. I was going uphill with three men to carve a pagdandi (pathway) in Raini. She was headed downhill. She said a quick hello and moved ahead,” Sangram Singh Rawat, former gram panchayat member of Raini village, told TOI.

这是一个格外晴朗的周日早晨，42岁的德维（Mahatami Devi）生活北阿坎德邦的一个村子里，她从家里出来，到邻近的拉伊尼村（Raini ）拾柴火和牛草。她有三个儿子，17岁的安吉特当时就在家里。前村委会成员拉瓦特告诉《印度时报》：“我在早上8点左右遇到了她。我和三个人一起上山去雷尼开一条小路。她正往山下走。她打了个招呼，然后继续往前走。”

“An hour later, there was a loud, thundering sound. When we looked up, the clear blue sky had turned grey. And then, we heard Ankit screaming, ‘Save my mother.’ A wall of water came surging through the hills, swee with it everything that came in its way — people, cattle, trees. We could do nothing.”

“一小时后，传来一声雷鸣般的巨响。当我们抬头看时，蓝天已经变成了灰色。然后，我们听到安基特尖叫:“救救我妈妈。”一堵水墙从山上冲了过来，把挡在它前面的一切都冲走了——人、牛、树。我们却无能为力。”

Metres away, Anita Devi, 70, from Raini Chuksa village was grazing cattle when the debris-laden Dhauliganga raged through Raini. “She was with her grandson Golu and daughter-in-law Tanuja. The two of them ran for their lives when they heard the sound. Anita Devi was left behind. We saw the river swallow her as she stood there, helpless,” said Kundan Singh, 42, from Raini.

42岁古楠（Kundan Singh）说：“70岁的Anita Devi在几米开外的地方放牛。当时她和孙子、儿媳在一起。他们俩一听到声音就逃命去了。Raini Chuksa被落在后面。她无助地站在那里，我们眼睁睁地看着洪水吞噬了她。”

While those in the higher reaches saw their loved ones swept away, those downhill darted in panic. “Bhaago (run),” people were screaming. But they could not keep going. “The air was thick, pungent. They could not breathe, could not run faster. They just buckled down and waited,” Sangram said.

在高处的人眼睁睁看着自己的亲人被冲走，山下的人则惊慌失措，四处乱窜。“跑吧，”人们尖叫着。但他们无法继续前进。空气很浓，很刺鼻。他们不能呼吸，无法跑得更快。他们只能拼尽全力。

After about half an hour, the village elders in Raini said they should go looking for those who were missing. “What we saw was horrifying. Where we had seen people working hours ago — cutting wood, grazing cattle — there was a swamp of debris. Not one of our people could be spotted,”Sangram said. Kundan’s nephew is among them. “He had taken around 150 goats for grazing. He has gone missing,” Kundan said. With villages in the area cut off because bridges have been swept away, many labourers and their families are stranded. Kundan is hosting about 20 of them at his house.

大约半小时后，拉伊尼村的长老们说大家应该去寻找失踪者。“我们看到的太可怕了。几个小时前我们还看到人们干活的地方——砍柴、放牛——现在成了一片废墟沼泽。我们一个人都没找到，”。古楠的侄子就是失踪者之一。“他当时在放羊，大约150只山羊。他已经失踪了。”古楠说道。由于桥梁被冲走，该地区的村庄与外界隔绝，许多工人和他们的家人被困在这里，古楠的家里收容了大约20个人。

Kundan and Sangram have been protesting against hydropower projects in the geologically fragile region for years. Their petition had taken the state and Centre to court for the Rishiganga project. Kundan said, “What happened today was nature’s way of telling us things are horribly wrong.”

多年来，古楠和Sangram一直在抗议在这个地质脆弱的地区建设水电项目。他们的请愿书将邦和中央政府告上了法庭。Sangram说：“大自然是在告诉我们，这是大错特错。”

印度时报读者的评论：译者：Jessica.Wu

ind vk

If we build statues, monuments for leaders in all the states, elephants that maya did in up, for vote banks, wasting tax payers , these kind of incidents will not happen.

如果我们为每个邦的领导人修建雕像，纪念碑，挥霍掉纳税人的钱，就没有钱修这些水电工程了，这样的事就不会发生。

JAY CHOUDHURY

Prayers for the deceased and those who lost their loved ones. It's also important to ponder as human are we creating settlements near naturally volatile areas

为死者和失去亲人的家庭祈祷。人们是否在地质不稳定的地区定居，这也需要考虑

Dreet

Now you know why Greta won the Nobel Peace Prize which Trump had being eyeing and he quit the Paris Climate Change in fury. Climate Change will become the Human Waterloo if you are not careful.

现在你们知道为什么格蕾塔能获得诺贝尔和平奖提名了吧，而特朗普一直对这个奖项虎视眈眈，他还愤怒地退出了巴黎气候变化。如果人们不在乎的话，气候变化将成为人类的滑铁卢。

Ashish Dalal

This ambani adani govt in the name of development ruined this country

印度政府以发展的名义毁了这个国家

Dreet

Climate Change is far more dangerous than Coronavirus and can make humans extinct like Dinasaurs. Beware

气候变化比新冠病毒危险得多，可能会使人类像恐龙一样灭绝，当心

Uday Gohil

Save nature nature will save you!

拯救自然，自然也会拯救你!

Vythialingam S Iyer

This is the result of toothless environmental agencies and people in power bypassing environmental impact of various projects.

And this report will also get buried like many others before it.

这就是环保机构和当权者无视各种项目对环境的影响的结果。

这篇报道也会像之前的很多报道一样被掩埋。

Subbu India

The nature of our hills are being desrted by felling the trees creating climate change. Much more is going to happen if we do not stop playing with our natural resources.

由于砍伐树木造成气候变化，山上的自然环境正在遭到破坏。如果我们不停止过度开采自然资源，更多灾难的会接踵而至。

Ashish Malakar

Human greed got better of humanity. Lets hope that we all understood it and become more humane. Pray for the departed soul to rest in peace

人类太贪婪了。希望我们都能变得更有人情味。为死去的灵魂祈祷，安息吧

Venkata Rao Vedula

Our government seems not to learn of havoc caused by manmade project ventures that disturb nature’s ecological system.

我们的政府似乎没有意识到人造工程破坏自然生态系统所造成的破坏。

Pream

This is Nature's Fury. Cannot give any other name. RIP the dead ones & pray for speedy recovery of the injured.

大自然怒了。愿死者安息，祈祷伤者早日康复。

Vinod Chawla

Learn from Switzerland and New Zealand as to how one can pursue eco and environment friendly development...

向瑞士、新西兰学习生态环保发展之道……

Swapnil Nehe

Mankind done very good progress and see the astonishing results ....so keep it up we will die one day

人类取得了非常大的进步，看到了惊人的结果…继续保持，我们总有一天会死

Uday Gohil

Man made tragedy!

人为悲剧!

crusoe rob

This does not have anything to do with these projects. It is a natural phenomena, happens even in pristine areas of no development.

这场灾难和这些项目没有任何关系。这是一种自然现象，即使在没有开发的原始地区也会发生类似灾难。

Ramnath Shankar

Two projects in close by vicinity even 50 km is very closy by fo titonic scale the two aided the within glacier water to melt away and the hard ice become weak and trigger a sever sweep down of both the hydro electric projects.

这两个项目相距50公里，非常近。两个项目促使冰川融化，坚硬的冰变得脆弱崩溃，反过来摧毁了这两个水电项目。