Eyewitness: The land of the dead

CNN's New Delhi Bureau Chief Satinder Bindra recalls his experiences of eight days in the quake zone.

CNN New Delhi bureau chief Satinder Bindra

NOTHING COULD prepare me for what I saw in Bhuj. As we circled to land at the airport, I had my first chance to look at the devastation from the air.

The city looked as though it had been hit by an atom bomb.

Down on the ground, the images that I saw will remain burned in my mind's eye, perhaps forever.

Residents were digging fresh graves. A normal, noisy city was eerily silent. The only sounds were loud wails from family members as they identified loved ones being pulled from the rubble.

IN-DEPTH India's devastating quake

Rescue workers toiled feverishly as anxious relatives looked on. Some were frustrated because the army wouldn't allow them to do the dangerous work.

Before the soldiers arrived, thousands of residents had been scrabbling with bare hands to search through the rubble.

By the third day it was obvious the machinery of government had broken down. Survivors complained there was no food.

Food riots

On the fifth day after the quake, I witnessed food riots. Hundreds of people from the outlying areas came back onto the highway to try to commandeer relief convoys and take them back to their hungry families.

Desperation and devastation in the quake zone

That's when the police stepped in, beating back dozens with hefty canes.

One man, in his 40s, took several blows on his chest. Then he turned to me and sobbed: "I've lost my family, my home asnd this is how the government treats me: my only crime is that I am hungry."

Before I could reach out to console him, other residents led him away. I choked back tears.

According to UNICEF, some five million children have been affected by the worst quake to hit India in 50 years. They are the lucky ones. Thousands of others perished.

In one school, 400 children were trapped in their classrooms. As word spread of the trapped children, the army devoted extra resources to try to pull them out.

It was gut-wrenching to watch hundreds of parents waiting for the army, working with just one bulldozer, to pull out their children.

Fading hopes

For hours we watched only dead bodies coming to the surface. Then the army too gave up hope. But not the parents.

"My only son is there," wailed one mother. "I know he will come out, I know he has to come out. I will wait here forever. "

The quake hit on a public holiday, bringing a tragic end to many family celebrations

I walked away. The agony of so many mothers was more than I could bear.

Among all this death, devastation and despair, I saw some stunning moments as rescuers pulled out survivors who had spent days buried under the rubble.

The most amazing was the rescue of 35-year-old Parakash Gore.

Soldiers first heard his voice from deep down below. Then as a Swiss rescue team started to dig furiously, Gore kept on talking, sometimes angrily.

Pulled from the rubble

"What's taking you so long," he screamed. "I have to get to work. Get me out of here fast."

The few survivors plucked from the rubble offered rare glimmers of hope

At first, only his head was visible. He was trapped face-down in the rubble, and still talking.

When rescuers pulled him out his wife was still clutching his hand. Rescuers told me she had been dead for four days. Just feet away from Gore was his dead two-day old son.

In all, seven members of his family perished.

Buoyed by Gore's rescue, the Swiss rescue team quickly pulled out four-year-old Sonu Mahesh. Moments after being rescued she stunned everyone by demanding an icecream cone.

As she hungrily chomped cookies after spending six days under the rubble, Sonu said she "survived on prayer", always confident she would walk out alive.

Her overjoyed father told me they had given up hope, but felt blessed when God "returned their daughter from the dead."

Wave of terror

Every rescue in Bhuj was cause for huge celebration, but I was still surrounded by misery.

People here had lost everything. Their homes, their jobs and their livelihoods. To compound their grief, looters, some of whom were believed to be escapers from the damaged Bhuj jail, spread a wave of terror.

Traumatized survivors rushed back to their cracked and damaged homes, trying to salvage belongings.

Survivor Ashish Mehta summed up the mood: "These looters should be shot dead." Mehta's brother was killed in the quake. Now he was both confused and bitter.

"Where has humanity gone? People should be helping us. Instead of helping they are looting."

The quake has left more than 500,000 people homeless. They urgently need tents and blankets, otherwise they fear their shivering children may become the quake's newest victims.

Tent cities

At the Bhuj district collector's office I was mobbed by an angry crowd.

Officials were sending them from pillar to post in search of tents and blankets. What no-one dared tell them was this: they had run out of tents and blankets.

"For so many days I have been running around for a tent," cried survivor Sadha Ben. "No-one answers us properly. They tell us to go from one office to another. Where should we go, we have little children."

Over the next few days, relief workers will begin constructing hundreds of tent cities. I will soon return to report on rehabilitation efforts.

Hopefully the images I see next time will be easier to bear than my first memories of a city that collapsed when the earth moved.

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