Feature: Nepal's Sindhupalchowk district suffers huge loss, awaits post-quake relief from state

At a time when most of the rescue operation and relief distribution programs are centered on Kathmandu, the situation in out-of-valley districts is terrible as they are struggling to receive attention from the state.

By noon on Wednesday, more than 1,376 people had already been confirmed dead in Sindhupalchowk district alone, some 100 km away from the capital that borders China.

Though the destruction and human loss in Sindhupalchowk is more than in the capital, the residents of this worst-stricken district shared that they have been ignored by the state.

"My house has completely collapsed. I lost my two-year-old son. My husband is away from home and my leg is broken. I don't have a home to go back to because everything has been destroyed," a tearful 39-year-old homemaker, Deepa Khadka, told Xinhua in a Kavre-based Chinese medical camp.

Khadka was working in her small vegetable farm that is less than 100 meters away from her mud house when the earthquake struck. Having lost everything, including her son, she said she didn't want to go back to her village.

"My relatives said that almost all buildings in our village Sanga have been completely destroyed and 20 of our neighbors are dead," Khadka added.

Some 90 percent of the total survivors getting treatment at the camp are from rural Village Development Committees (VDCs) of mountainous Sindhupalchowk.

Ten-year-old Babita Tamang is also among those being treated at Kavre-based hospital by the Chinese medical team. She was playing with her elder sister inside her mud house when the tremors started. She said they ran away quickly towards the main door but the house collapsed and her right leg was broken.

She told Xinhua from her bed, "I am fine now and my sister is too. But my parents say we don't have a home now. I wonder where we will eat and sleep?"

Tamang, a grade 4 student, lived in Giranchaur Baasbari village in Sindhupalchowk. Her grandfather who was sitting nearby her said, "I am alive but more than 12 people died in our village. It seems like the whole village is empty now as all the houses have been destroyed."

Likewise, 99 percent of houses in Kodari, Kadamgachi VDC, have been destroyed. There were around 100 households in the area. The situation is similar in the northern belt of the district, where almost all villages have been damaged. Rescue operations are still underway in a few VDCs leading to a possible rise in the death toll.

Lila Kumari Thapa, a local of the same VDC and a mother of 4 daughters, said in hospital that, "More than 25 people have been killed in my village. We are waiting for support from the state. We want our houses back."

The district is entirely based upon agriculture so the living standard of the people in the area is quite low. Beside human loss, the district also lost herds of cattle.

Meanwhile, the road to Sidhupalchowk has been blocked by a landslide, creating more difficulty in rescue and relief operations. Endi