ABSTRACT
On January 26th 2001, Republic Day, Kachchh was at the epicentre of a devastating earthquake that measured about 7.6 on the Richter scale (Bendick et al. 2001; DEC (2001) reports a more modest 6.8). The scale of destruction was vast. Few structures in the towns of Bhuj, Anjar and Bhachau were left standing: of the District’s 1,359 schools, 992 were destroyed and – as they collapsed – 910 primary-and 37 secondary-school children were crushed (Mishra 2004). There is no consensus on how many people lost their lives: a month later, the Government of India placed the figure at 19,727 and the number of injured at 166,000, with many left homeless or living in damaged homes (Bendick et al. 2001, 1). Over 20,000 cattle deaths were reported (ibid), and unofficial statistics suggest the human dead actually numbered over 33,000. We will never know.
