Relief efforts in India's earthquake tragedy came in for fierce criticism Thursday, as fears grew of epidemics resulting from thousands of trapped, decomposing bodies contaminating the water supply.
Remarkable feats of survival provided temporary boosts to morale, but the pervading mood as relief efforts entered their seventh day in the western state of Gujarat was one of gloom and frustration.
Priyanka Thakar, 13, was pulled out of the rubble in the early hours of Thursday morning by a team of Turkish rescue workers, after being buried for six days in the worst-hit district of Bhuj.
Thakar's rescue partially overshadowed that of 102-year-old Veji Bhen, who was trapped for more than four days before being extricated from the ruins of her home in devastated Bachao township.
In Gujarat's commercial capital, Ahmedabad, state officials sought to deflect mounting criticism of their organization of relief operations.
"It is very easy to criticize for people standing on the outside," said Pravin Lehri, principal secretary to Gujarat's chief minister.
While admitting that coordination was a problem, together with the distribution of relief materials pouring in from around the world, Lehri stressed the "mind-boggling" destruction wrought by Friday morning's quake.
"I do not think in any part of the world people have had to handle devastation on this scale," he said, highlighting the fact that 120,000 dwelling units had collapsed in Friday morning's 30-second quake that measured 7.9 on the Richter scale.
Estimates of the final death toll have ranged from 25,000 to 100,000, although Lehri put the current body count at 14,236 with nearly 62,000 injured.
With hopes of finding any further survivors all but over, the task of retrieving thousands of decomposing corpses from the ruins of Gujarat's towns and villages has become a major priority.
"We are quite apprehensive of epidemics because of the numbers of dead bodies and other decaying material lying under the debris," Lehri said, adding that freezing night-time temperatures were another major health hazard.
V. Ramalingam, a senior medical official with the Indian Red Cross said the risk of the spread of disease was growing by the day.
"The big threat we are facing now is that of water-borne diseases," Ramalingam told AFP.
"There are still a lot of unrecovered dead bodies and animal carcasses and these will increasingly contaminate the water-supply, creating a serious health risk," she said.
Although bulldozers have been deployed in many ravaged towns, there has been some strong local opposition to their use as long as survivors continue to be found.
Those corpses which are recovered are immediately cremated without ceremony, while animal carcasses are simply sprayed with fuel and burned where they lie.
International relief agencies say around 300,000 people are believed to be in urgent need across Gujarat, and the initial relief and rehabilitation effort is expected to last at least four months.
The global response has been overwhelming, but relief agencies complain supplies are getting blocked at airports and major towns, with no system for distributing them to the badly-affected areas.
The Indian press on Thursday recognized the scale of the problem facing the authorities but was unequivocal in its criticism of the organizational response to the disaster.
"The tragedy is not that there is none to help, it is the opposite," the Times of Indian said in an editorial.
"Relief is coming in a tidal wave ... but there is no direction in these efforts."
The Calcutta-based Statesman newspaper described the relief effort as "botched, mismanaged and callously uncoordinated" and gave a harsh response to warnings by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that the government may introduce special budgetary measures to help pay for the disaster.
"Before you ask the people to make sacrifices Mr. Vajpayee, ask your administrators to work," the newspaper said -- AHMEDABAD, India (AFP)
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