The closest settlement to the epicenter of the 2001 earthquake: Choubari still bears scars of destruction

Manji Meria, 50, and his family are digging the site where their home was buried 20 years ago in the earthquake in the Chopari village of Bachao Taluka, the closest human settlement to the epicenter, which was identified nine kilometers from here. The devastating earthquake of January 26, 2001, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale, killed 13,805 people and injured 1.67,000.

As Maria pounded the foundations with a blanket, she cleaned the soil and uncovered old stones in the rubble. We were five siblings who lived together in this house. We were enjoying the sunshine on that cold morning when the ground shook violently and turned the entire house into a pile of rubble, and we buried my eight-year-old niece who was inside, ”says Maria, as he digs out the buried sandstones.

I’m trying to rebuild the house. Maybe I was the last one to do that in this village. I rebuild all the houses you see around you after the earthquake that rattled every building in the village to the ground, except for the Ram Temple.

About 3,200 homes were rebuilt in the village during the massive rehabilitation process carried out after the earthquake with 88 percent of the dead from the Kutch district. Maria’s family moved to the eastern side of the village after they bought a new plot of land. “We are still five siblings living together,” he says.

Until 2001, Chobari was a close-knit village of Bhachau taluka with 3,200 homes from Kutchi, Sindhi and Gujarati speaking families. It is 120 km from Dholavira, the site of the Indus Valley Civilization, and is the last access point near the India-Pakistan border. The main source of subsistence is agriculture, with the main crops being cumin and isjubul.

Seismic device inside the post office; Children play in narrow hallways. (Photo: Nirmal Harendran)

The village lost 648 of its residents. Chobari, one of the 890 affected villages in Kutch, was razed to the ground. For several months after the earthquake, Chubari villagers said they were living in tents provided by Indian and foreign aid providers. Reconstruction and rehabilitation started after the Gujarat state government distributed Rs 73 crore cash disbursements to 9.11 thousand to families across the state. This was in addition to the death and injury compensation in the amount of Rs 121 crore and Rs 17 crore respectively.

Chopari, which was once a unit connected by narrow lanes with the Ram Temple as its pivotal structure, today spreads across seven different areas.

Before the earthquake, the village was confined to an area of ​​one square kilometer. Today it spreads over a distance of 4 kilometers and includes seven settlements, including Kabeer Nagar, City Nagar, Ikta Nagar, Ganshiyam Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Chamunda Nagar and Navi Chobari. People migrated to their farms because there was so much rubble that it was not possible to rebuild the homes immediately. Nevertheless, all of these new settlements are governed by a single panchayat, ”said Velji Dela, Sarbanesh Chopari.

According to Della, the earthquake placed the little-known village of Choubari “on the map of the world.” “Huge efforts have been made to rebuild 3,200 destroyed homes in the epicenter. Velji, who was 21 years old at the time, said, “The government has provided aid ranging from 60,000 to 90,000 rupees.

The high cost of land boosted by piped drinking water in the village after the earthquake was an incentive for Miriya to reconstruct the same site. Only 50 meters from Meriya’s old house is the old bus stop and the street that once housed Chobari’s busy main market.

Mohanlal Gosai relaxing outside his shop, the oldest stall in the village. (Photo: Nirmal Harendran)

Now the street is covered with dense plants of babol (prosopis juliflora) growing on the remains of the shops that once stood here. Both the market and the bus stop have moved to the main road connecting Chobari to Bhachau.

Mohanlal Gossai, who owns a stall selling daily necessities, says his shop was in the suburbs before 2001. “Today the rebuilt village has grown everywhere and my shop is now in the center. We never thought we would recover (from the impact of the earthquake). Today we have electricity. Around the clock, the Narmada canal, piped drinking water, five primary schools, and now people have a lot of four-wheeled vehicles, ”says Josai, 68. The village had electricity before the earthquake, but there were many blackouts.

“Members of the Jin, Khatri, and Takar communities who owned shops in this village and were largely involved in the trade, all moved from the village to larger cities like Mumbai,” says Gossai.

The new Choubari village of over 1,800 homes and a population of 8,000-10,000 remains without a police station. A street in the Ram Temple, which was in the center of the village before the earthquake, leads to a two-story building that was used as a police station. It is now covered with Babol tall trees. It is one of the few concrete buildings in the village that reminds visitors of the severity of an earthquake.

“The police station was newly built when the earthquake struck. It has not been rebuilt and the village of more than 10,000 people is still without a functioning police station. Over the years, the doors and windows of the police station have been stolen as well,” says Bharat Ahir, the owner of the farm near the center. Police where cumin is grown.

“I have to travel all the way from Bhachau town (25 kilometers) when there is a problem,” says Assistant Inspector Harjiba Gadafi of Bhachau Police Station in charge of Chopari, says Gadvi, who rides in the Maruti 800.

The successive effects of the earthquake, which had its epicenter in Chopari, were felt in 16 regions, to Nafsari (17 deaths) in southern Gujarat and Burbandar (10 deaths) in the west. As schools opened that day to celebrate Republic Day, 971 children died and 1,051 were injured.

The old center of the village near Ram Temple was largely empty after being overcrowded. “The survivors have bitter memories of losing their loved ones and have chosen to rebuild their homes near their farms far from the village. However, they have built small mausoleums in the places where their homes were…. You can see a lot of hut-like structures with saffron flags. Meria, who runs an outdoor camp for tourists who visit the area where Dolavera and Flamingo are nearby, “family members light the lights here every day.”

Suleiman Majouti, one of the survivors and the clerk who holds the official records in the village, is in the new panchayat office where there is a plaque listing the details of the building’s reconstruction. (Photo: Nirmal Harendran)

The broken top of a Jain temple is covered with a thick layer of soil and vegetation, while only the foundation of the panchayat building near the Ram Temple is visible.

Suleiman Majuti, 55, a writer in the village of Panchayat who was rescued as it was in the compound, says, “(The Panchayats) were an old building that fell and killed a number of children and adults who gathered for the raising flag to celebrate the Republic Day … About 45 bodies were found. Under the collapsed panchayat building. ” He sits behind a pile of files in the rebuilt building, 50 meters from the old building, contemplating how his former workplace was “more facilities” while the current building was “basic.” The room he occupies has a plaque detailing the building’s reconstruction.

Near the panchayats, seismometers have been installed within a “Skills Development Center” by the Gandhinagar-based Institute for Seismology Research to study seismic activity in the area since 2005.

“Due to the 2001 earthquake in Kutch, all faults became active in the area. The maximum activity recorded is 4-5 on the Richter scale. We record 300-400 earthquakes every year, in the Kutch region alone,” says Director General in charge of ISR, Dr. Somer Chopra. “.

The Kutch fault on the mainland, the South Vagad fault, the North Vagad fault, and the God-Bond fault are among the main active faults in Kutch today. ISR 80 has established a seismograph in the Kutch area to study and monitor seismic activity. It is linked via satellite and provides real-time data. In the village of Famka, about 20 km from here, the ISR has set up a multi-parameter geophysical observatory that is monitoring seismic activity.

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