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Indian quake area recovering from shock

CHAMOLI, (India): Rescue workers wound down operations in India's Himalayan foothills on Tuesday after a powerful earthquake struck the region leaving at least 100 dead and 300 injured.

"Rescue operations are more or less over. But in remote areas, they are still on," Gautam Kaul, director general of the Indo-Tibetan Police Force, told Reuters. "The death toll and number of injured could rise but is unlikely to increase dramatically."

State officials said that in remote areas from which rescue teams had not yet returned the extent of damage would be known only after they reported back.

"Information has not come from the interiors. It may go up. That is our concern," Information and Broadcasting Minister Promod Mahajan told reporters after a cabinet meeting in New Delhi.

Relief operations were in full swing throughout the day in the regions where the powerful earthquake and aftershocks flattened houses.

"As many as 61 dead bodies have been recovered from Chamoli district, 34 in Rudraprayag and five in Tehri district by 9:00 a.m. (0330 GMT)," a senior Uttar Pradesh state official said.

The quake, felt across many parts of northern India, western Nepal and southern China early on Monday morning, brought houses tumbling down on thousands of people as they slept.

Tents have been put up by the paramilitary in Chamoli, the worst-hit area, to provide shelter and medical help to the survivors. Distribution of food and medicines has begun for the first time since the disaster occurred.

A statement issued by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in New Delhi said trucks loaded with relief material for the quake-hit regions would reach them on Wednesday.

Officials said the state had also received reports of damage in the Pauri district which adjoins Chamoli and Rudraprayag.

Officials said details of the extent of the damage were unclear as telephone lines were down and the mountains made it difficult to communicate by radio. But more than 1,000 houses had collapsed.

The government said expert teams had been sent to Chamoli to carry out field surveys to assess the damage.

Women and children stood in long queues with buckets on Tuesday waiting for water tankers to arrive in Chamoli. Shops opened and local buses honked in the streets as life returned to the disaster area.

But officials said they feared that the region was not yet out of danger, as rocks loosened by the earthquake could cause landslides, especially during the monsoon season.

"I am expecting a very busy monsoon season and we have good reason to expect that," said ITBP's Kaul.-Reuters