MANGAN, 25 Sept: A desperate 15 year old Adesh Kumar [pic alongside] trekked for the third day in a row today from Jang basti in Lower Tintek to Mangan in hopes of making it through to Chungthang. The litter of landslides beyond Mangan thwarted his efforts today as well. He needs to get to Chungthang because his father, Bishvanath Ram, is one of the people listed as missing and feared killed in the landslide which claimed three lives at the Teesta Stage III hydel project site at Chungthang on 21 Sept.
Adesh is the second son of Bishvanath Ram, an operator employed with the General Mechanical Workers Company at the hydel project site. While Bishvanath worked at Chungthang, his family – wife and four children – lived at Jang.
With his eldest brother bed-ridden with a fractured led at present, it fell on Adesh to accompany his mother to Mangan in hopes of making it to Chungthang, a journey they have been undertaking every day since Saturday. They have not made it beyond Mangan thus far. The family is in panic, distraught over their inability to get to Chungthang and traumatised by the news that has reached them of their father being among those missing and feared dead at Chungthang.
The weight of the sorrow and uncertainty is obviously too harsh for Adesh’s young age, but the situation is such that he has no option but to shoulder the responsibility of looking for his father and ascertaining his fate. His only hope of achieving closure is to get a lift on one of the helicopter sorties to make it to Chungthang and meet the concerned authorities there and find out about his father.
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