Scarred survivors want new address

PUNE: Till last Wednesday, Malin village was their world and the simple folk who toiled in its fields and lived on the terraced slopes never looked much beyond it. A landslide changed all that, and those who survived it, don't want to go back to their lives in the village.
The memories of the mishap and the huge loss of lives will make living at Malin impossible, they said and want the state government to rehabilitate them away from it all.
"I was born and brought up here. My family and friends lived here. The landslide took most of them away. For whom should I live here?" asked Suhas Zanjare.
He works in Kamshet, but visited the village frequently to meet his family.
"The government should take us away from this area now. We should get some place in Ghodegaon area. Our rehabilitation should be done in a town-like area and not along the mountains which will now only evoke fear and memories of the landside," he said.
Over 50 survivors from Malin are living in a temporary camp in Asane village. While some were out of the village for work when the landslide took place, some were present and had witnessed the disaster.
"Only bad memories are left in the village now. We don't want to live with them. We want to go away," said Dilip Limbhe, a resident of Malin. He lost his wife, six daughters and a son in the landslide.
He had gone out for some work when the disaster struck. "There was a loud noise before the hill came crashing down. I rushed to the site and found that the entire village was buried under the debris and slush," he said.
Limbhe called the other survivors who were working in the nearby farms. When they reached the spot they heard people who were stuck under the debris crying for help.
"We heard them cry out for help, but we could not do anything. The debris was so heavy that removing it with bare hands was not possible. We went to a nearby village and conveyed the message to other people. The government machinery started arriving with help," said Raghunath Zanjare, another survivor, who was present in Malin at the time of the landslide.
Zanjare said he has lost his family members, paddy farm, house and cattle and nothing can bring any of them back. Now he does not want to live at the same place as it will remind him of the landslide and what he had lost.
"The new house should be away from Malin. We will not be able to cope with the stress of living at the same spot," he said. Zanjare had gone to the village temple when the mudslide happened.
Survivors said Malin village had seven padas (small colonies) and the main Malin village gaothan. The padas are safe, while the gaothan area has been destroyed. Only a handful of those houses are intact.
All those who escaped from the landslide met the government and district administration officials on Tuesday evening and put forward their demands. The meeting was chaired by speaker of the state legislative assembly Dilip Walse Patil, whose assembly constituency includes Malin.
"We have interacted with the people. Their demands will be considered. The administration will take them into confidence, before finalizing the location for rehabilitation," he said.