The family of Howrah’s Aneek Chatterjee had all but lost hope of finding him after the Uttarakhand tragedy.
For five days since the cloudburst last Monday, Chatterjee’s relatives had not been able to contact him.
In a desperate attempt, his younger brother Aveek put up the information that Aneek was missing on Google Person Finder, a web application that allows individuals to post and search for the status of people affected by natural or humanitarian disasters. And the good news arrived last evening.
A person named Udayan Ray replied to his query on the Google application yesterday, saying Aneek was alive and had come down to Gangotri along with his teammates.
“He and his teammates are now at Gangotri.… They have come down of (sic) their own. But they are at a fix what to do next. I have talked with Aneek personally today as well some of our friends. They are mentally alert but not physically in that sense…. They need help at the earliest possibility to come back at Rishikesh at least before rain makes havoc again.… Thank you,” read Udayan’s reply.
The Person Finder application, which is available in both Hindi and English, is currently tracking 5,900 records but it keeps increasing every hour. All data entered into the application is publicly available and searchable by anyone.
“I had lost all hope of getting my brother back and we are extremely happy to know he is fine. It’s unbelievable. The reason I put the information on Google Person Finder was to get any sort of information about him. We were desperate,” Aveek said over the phone.
Aneek, who was on his way to Kalindi Pass, was stranded on Swetha glacier for five days without any food. As no help from the government or the rescuers reached, he and his team travelled all the way down to Gangotri.
Hundreds of people from Bengal are still stranded in Uttarakhand. Many of them, like the Chatterjees, have taken to Google Person Finder in desperation.
Hemendranath Chakraborty’s family from Patuli, near Garia, has left a message along with his picture, saying his family members are waiting at the Guptakashi army camp.
Photographs of the missing person, name, physical characteristics, home address and other information can be posted on Google Person Finder.
On clicking the 2013 Uttarakhand Floods page (on the home page), users are re-directed to a fresh page where one can choose between two options: “I’m looking for someone” and “I have information about someone”.
By typing in the name of a person, one can either search for information on him or her or provide it, with details such as where he or she was last seen.
The Uttarakhand police have been posting information about rescued people on the application.
Long search
Sudip Biswas of Jamshedpur had travelled to Hardwar from Dehradun this morning in search of his brother’s in-laws amidst 570 bodies that had reached there on Saturday night. Not finding them, he left for Dehradun only to return to Hardwar at night.
“Around 325 people, rescued from various places, have been admitted to Jolly Grant Hospital near Hardwar. I saw the footage on a national news channel and one of the patients looked like my relative. I am going there to find out,” Biswas said.
Biswas had reached Dehradun on Saturday morning to look for his brother Rahul’s in-laws Monica Biswas and Brajabashi Biswas — residents of Bankura — with whom no contact could be established since June 16.
He went to Rishikesh from there to check some bodies that had reached there on Saturday afternoon. The elderly couple was in Kedarnath when they last spoke to their daughter and son-in-law. Their phones have been switched off since.
“We have been calling the helpline several times every day and also checking the official list of the deceased on the Uttarakhand government’s website. There is no trace of them. My wife has broken down. I have sent my brother there,” Rahul said.
Monday 24 June 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment