Uttarakand Survivors Face Psychological Problems, State Apathy

DEHRADUN: For three days, Atul Negi, 29, was a possessed man -- he lost his voice, turned violent and needed at least seven people to hold him down whenever someone asked him how he survived in the floods that have wreaked havoc in parts of Uttarakand and killed hundreds, perhaps thousands.

The family was really surprised to see the docile, quiet man so violent. Their only conclusion was that he was a changed man because of what he saw before he was rescued by the army choppers.

Negi worked in one of the hotels in Ghangharia, on the way to the famed Valley of Flowers.

Lying in the state-run Doon Hospital, Negi's condition has improved a bit. And much of the credit goes to the loving care his family has given him, enabling him to forget some of the horrifying images he was getting whenever he would close his eyes.

"He has quietened down now. In the initial days, he was very difficult to control. He was very violent. He couldn't speak and that angered him further," his nephew Sandeep told IANS.

Ask Negi how he is, and the diminutive man just nods his head, indicating he was well now.

Negi is still not in a position to talk even after being rescued a week back.

Sandeep said his uncle was swept away by the flood waters and was carried a long distance away. As he was drifting in the water, he somehow managed to climb atop a hotel structure that was in some height and was intact.