September, 2011 in Bhutan is an
unforgettable moment for me. My team who visited the remote and tiny Shebji
village in Haa district will always remember this trip. Our team consisting of
Stig Dalstrom, Thomas Hoijer and officials from Ministry of Agriculture and Forests begun the journey
from Thimphu towards Shebji, Haa to explore the orchid diversity in the region.
Well, we planned our journey on 17th the beautiful morning of September but couldn’t make it as our
team member Stig had severe backache and was bedridden and could hardly move.
He was referred to the hospital and while back in the hotel, a pop sound from
his back warded off the pain away. To our surprise he was completely back to normal and
he eagerly wanted to start the journey at the earliest. Thus, we began our journey
towards Haa, where we halt a night. While at Haa, some more foresters joined
our team and had really good discussions and planned our adventurous journey
into the wild.
It was a fine morning and I could
hear the birds chirping. Well, we were all set to travel towards Tegola but
unfortunately our car ran out of fuel. So, we headed towards the fuel station
only to find electric power shut down and the station didn’t work. Hence, our
driver went around Haa town and managed to get few liters of fuel from private
drivers. Once again we begun the journey.
Road construction has just begun
and it was still in its first cut and was filled with muddy bumps and
it seemed be have rained all through the night. We stopped halfway since car
couldn’t travel further due to slippery road surface and waited for the horses
to arrive. So with the horses, we started to walk down the hills. We walked down
the hills for nearly 6 hours on a rain-wet trail. We were all split up and I
was somewhere in the beginning with Bakta and Sangay and horses somewhere in
the middle.
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| Shebji Village |
It was beginning to get dark and
I just climbed to a hill in Shebji from where I could see Bakta about to get
nearer to an old traditional two storied house. I was just staring at the house
and all of a sudden I could hear ghostly loud sound commencing from an old
house and in the blink of an eye the whole earth beneath me shook. I could hear
boulders fall, tree branches breaking and some animal noises. That feeling
could resemble the near to death feeling. I was completely blank and I didn’t
know where my mind was, I was just standing there. Within few seconds Sangay
shouted at me to stand in the middle of the open field and I saw him shouting to
Bakta as well. Bakta too was just standing and staring at the old house. Within
seconds, three of us were standing in the middle of an open ground and after
few minutes everything was calm. Some of the villagers also came out running
towards us and we all stood in the middle of the ground for a while.
It was so frightening and the
worst part is when some of the team mates are still missing. Immediate thoughts like
“where are they? Are we going to make through it? How can I rescue them?” were
arising spontaneously. So, we all decided to get into the old house and after
few minutes few of our mates arrived, still few were missing. After some 15
minutes, Thomas along with some horsemen arrived making some loud noises as
usual but the noise he made that moment sounded so aggressive and terrified. We
laid him down near the fire and let him have warm soup, he felt very cold.
Some of us started to hand pick numerous blood sucking leeches from him, his
body had full of it and shirts blood stained. We were told that he was all
alone when the incident happened. While he walking, the trail just was washed
away, so he jump upwards and laid down for few seconds but he felt hundreds of
leeches climbing on him. Finally, he managed to climb on a tree upon which he was spotted
by some horsemen and was brought down. Horses were without luggage on its backs yet
looked so terrified. Luggage were placed somewhere on the trail, since the
horses started to fall down as the tremor occurred.
Bakta, Guman and few
horsemen went to look for Stig and friends after spotting a tiny light from far
away in the dark from other side of the slope. We could see them responding to
out lights. Finally, we were all altogether but very scared. I heard that Stig and
friends during the thunderous earthquake they were all set to face any consequences that would fall upon them and
decided to spend the night in the forest at some safe spot.
Now that everyone was well aware of
the aftershock after some local people heard from their friend through
telephone and radio. Unfortunately, both telephone and radio didn’t work so
well, it was just not working though. Hence, we spent the night out in the
field for few days.
Still the memories seem to be fresh; I can feel how 2015 Nepal earthquake has effected the people.
PS: No Proof Read
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| We spent our few days in this traditional house, sorry near the house. |
