[The
bodies of poorly paid tour guides in casual clothing are recovered from the Nepal
By Dean Nelson, Jomsom
Tour
guides caught in the snow storm which struck a Himalayan trekking route in
Nepal died because they were so poorly equipped, rescue leaders have said amid
resentment that foreign hikers are “put first” in the rescue mission.
The Nepal Army’s top rescue leader, who led more than 70 hikers to safety following the storm and has since recovered the bodies of 25, said local victims had been wearing causal clothes, including flip flops or trains.
Half
of the dead were Nepali porters, guides and cooks, many of whom did not have
did not have any warm weatherproof coats or boots to protect them from the
freezing snow storm, Captain Adhikari said.
His
comments came as the rescue team recovered the 40th victim of the devastating
blizzard and warned that some of the dead may not be recovered from the snow
until next Spring
“The
worst thing was [seeing] the equipment and gear of the Nepali porters and
guides because it meant they were dead, but they were not well-equipped,” he
said.
“The Nepalis I saw were wearing normal dress, some
of them in slippers, some had coats and some didn’t. They did not have proper
clothes or protection from the snow...this could be a factor in why so many
Nepalis died.”
Tour
operators charge up to £1,800 for a three week trek around the Annapurna circuit, but Captain Adhikari said “they’re
not spending it on the porters”. Some carry equipment weighing up to 40
kilograms on their backs and earn as little as £9 a day.
His
comments were supported by Baburam Bhandari, the Nepal
“There
was no preparation. Many trekkers that came into the storm arrived without
planning,” he said.
“Their
porters had no trekking shoes or coats. They were in sports shoes and normal
clothes because they’re poor - it is one of the causes of their deaths. Some of
them died because they were too cold - it was freezing snow, five or six feet
deep.”
Foreign
trekkers have prioritised in the rescue effort because because many had travel
insurance which provided helicopter evacuation for them, but not their guides
and porters.
The
army’s helicopters cannot fly to some of the higher paths and passes and their
rescue teams have had to rely on private operators focussed on evacuating
foreign trekkers.
The
Israeli and Swiss embassies are believed to have sent helicopters to recover
their nationals stranded on the passes.
One
trekker said a Dutch man had been refused a seat on a helicopter sent by the
Israeli government by a crew member who said told him it was for “Israelis
only”.
“The
foreigner is the guest, the sponsor, so the foreigner comes first, it is [a] problem,”
Mr Bhandari said.
Keshav
Pande of the Trekking Agents Association of Nepal said his group offers low
cost clothing and equipment rental for porters and guides but many of them
believe they do not need them.
Foreign
trekkers often hire their own guides directly, rather than through established
trekking companies, and are focussed on keeping their costs down.
“If
the group is organised they have all the equipment but the tourists want
cheaper, they get someone from the street [to guide them]. They want cheap, cheap,
cheap”, he said.
@ The Telegraph
@ The Telegraph
*
[In
late September, when she was sentenced to four years in prison for illegally
enriching herself during the first of her three terms as chief minister, party
faithful entered into a period of demonstrative public grieving, with many
party members shaving their heads, fasting or keeping vigil outside her prison
cell.]
By Ellen Barry
NEW DELHI — Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the
former chief minister of Tamil Nadu who was convicted of corruption charges
last month, promised this week to give compensatory payments of about $4,800
each to the families of 193 followers who are said to have died or committed
suicide out of distress because of her imprisonment.
Ms.
Jayaram, who was released on bail on Saturday pending an appeal, commands
extraordinary devotion even by the operatic standards of South Indian politics.
In
late September, when she was sentenced to four years in prison for illegally
enriching herself during the first of her three terms as chief minister, party
faithful entered into a period of demonstrative public grieving, with many
party members shaving their heads, fasting or keeping vigil outside her prison
cell.
Almost
immediately, accounts emerged of followers who had committed suicide over the
case, though it was impossible to independently confirm the reports.
Ms.
Jayaram’s party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, claims that 193
people committed suicide or died of shock while she was behind bars, though
that number includes 139 people who died of heart attacks during that period.
Seventeen of the reported suicides were self-immolations, 20 were hangings and
nine were deaths by poison, it said.
C.
Ponaiyan, the party’s state organization secretary, said officials made home
visits to interview families and friends to determine whether reported deaths
were actually because of Ms. Jayaram’s legal predicament.
“If
the local public at large says that so-and-so died because he was not eating
for the past so many days, we can figure the heart attack might have taken
place as a result of the trauma,” he said. “That so-and-so had been weeping and
crying since the past so many days is enough to tell us the condition of the
person’s heart and state of mind.”
Officials
from a rival party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, have questioned the veracity of
the reported suicides. M. G. Devasahayam, a community activist, told the
newspaper The Hindustan Times that the figure of 193 was “highly exaggerated
and absurd.”
Ms.
Jayaram returned to her home in Chennai, the state capital, over the weekend,
and released an impassioned statement to her followers, promising them she
“would not be cowed down or lose heart.”
“My
public life amounts to swimming in a sea of inferno,” she said. “As your dear
sister, I have realized the perils of dedicating oneself for the cause of
public welfare from the day I entered politics.”
Suhasini
Raj contributed reporting.