"Death would have been better than going through this nightmare with nowhere to go and no shoulder to cry on," Promila said, she lost everything when a room in the building she was staying, collapsed in a landslide.
In the early hours of August 23, a landslide partially destroyed Prari House, a government-servant quarters where Promila and her ailing mother resided it was close to Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital (IGMCH).
On Friday narrating her story to PTI, she mentioned, "I live with my 75-year-old mother who is suffering from ovarian cancer and has been undergoing treatment since 2016. I also lost my job as a sales girl in a shop in Ram Nagar in the city market last week due to the recession as there were no customers.”
“I slept at IGMCH on Thursday night as there is no place to go," she added, she does not have siblings, or a father and is also separated from her husband.
“I am desperately looking for a job and am willing to even clean and sweep as I am in dire need of money for my mother's treatment. My mother is all I have." Promila has studied up to class 10.
"We could not salvage our belongings and the only thing left is the clothes we were wearing while running out of the collapsed house," says another landslide victim Suman whose room was adjacent to Promila's.
Suman, a domestic helper, states that the landslide destroyed everything she owned and that she is unable to pay for her son's school expenses. She said that they are homeless, have no clothes, and that the landslide even ruined her son's class 5 textbooks.
With 26 rain-related incidents in the district in the last 10 days, Shimla has seen multiple landslides in recent weeks. Up to 120 people have died in rain-related accidents in the state this month, bringing the overall number of fatalities and missing individuals in Himachal Pradesh to 238 since the arrival of the monsoon season on June 24.
This monsoon saw three significant instances of heavy rain in Himachal Pradesh. The first significant destruction was in the districts of Mandi and Kullu. The second spell struck the Shimla and Solan districts, and the third spell severely damaged Shimla City.
Some of the articles related to the Himachal Pradesh monsoon series:
My Mountains Mourn: An Opinion Piece On The Ongoing Catastrophe In The Himachal
Landslides Killed 52 In Himachal Pradesh, 13 In Uttarakhand
Heavy Rainfall, Cloud Burst And Landslides In Himachal Pradesh Leaves 21 Dead
Why Is Himachal Pradesh And Uttarakhand Raining So Much This Year?
Flash Flood Hits Himachal Pradesh
(Images: AP)
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