Living to tell the tale
Krishna Bahadur Ramtel was returning home after visiting a temple when his family insisted on climbing the Dharara viewtower in Kathmandu.
He climbed up the narrow steep stairs with his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. His wife was nine months pregnant and chose to stay behind.
At the top, Ramtel was holding the balcony bars when the tower started swaying at 11:56AM on 25 April 2015. The 62m tall Dharara, built and rebuilt after previous earthquakes, then collapsed into a jumble of bricks and masonry.
“I heard screams everywhere, I told my mother-in-law and sister-in-law not to panic,” recalls Ramtel after regaining consciousness on a pile of rubble (pictured, below). Rescuers extricated his legs from under a brick arch and rushed him to the hospital, which was already crowded with patients writhing in pain.
His wife survived, but his in-laws did not. Ramtel was devastated, more so for his wife who was going to be a new mother, but lost two family members. His right leg needed an operation, but he made a complete recovery.
His child was born soon after, and Ramtel’s wife had to take care of her baby as well as her injured husband. But tragically, she lacked the help of her mother and sister.
The 7.8M earthquake 11 years ago this week killed 8,962 people in Central Nepal. Because it was Saturday, Dharahara Tower was more crowded than usual, and at least 180 bodies were later retrieved from the ruins.
Most like Ramtel who miraculously survived were on the balcony, while those climbing or descending the staircase were killed.
Built by Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa in 1832, there were originally two towers. But one collapsed and other was damaged in the 1834 earthquake and rebuilt. Exactly 100 years later, another earthquake brought it down again. It was again restored only to collapse in 2015.
Only the base of the original tower remains as a memorial inside the Dharahara complex, where a reinforced concrete tower now stands.
Dubbed ‘Seto Tower’ by Prime Minister Balendra Shah when he was mayor of Kathmandu is broader than the previous tower and even has a lift that goes up to the viewing deck.
But Ramtel says he not going anywhere near Dharara. He says, “That place holds memories that I do not want to remember, but I cannot forget either.”
Soon after his operation, Ramtel returned to his hometown in Dhading where more members of the extended clan offered support. But now he lives in Kathmandu with his family, his son is now 11 and he recently had another child..
“Being alive is a blessing. As long as one is living, there will be struggles, and I am ready to face them all,” he tells us.
NO PREPAREDNESS
While 25 April serves as a reminder of the last major earthquake in Nepal, 16 January is marked annually as Earthquake Safety Day, coinciding with the 8.3M megaquake of 1934.
Seismologists say the 7.8M disaster was not the big earthquake that Kathmandu experiences every 80-100 years, and the Big One is yet to hit. Building standards are still regularly flouted in densely populated parts of Kathmandu, which worries Ramtel.
“The government acts only after the disaster has happened, people and the authorities forget quickly and move on. There is little preparation, and we expect God to save us,” says Ramtel, who also survived because of divine intervention.