Aedgotun lies 20 kms inside Kulgam district, which is south east of Anantnag, and located on the slopes of a mountain. It has Veshaw river on one side which flows out of Aharbal waterfall. No buses ply till here. It is all quiet and the air is clean.
Roads that lead up to five kilometres of the village are in good shape. So driving in a private vehicle through the serpentine roads under the shade of apple trees is like living a picture postcard. Though crops are not exactly standing, vast paddy fields on either side of the road, give it a shade of yellow and huge walnut trees along the road add a brown hue.
The only way to reach Aedgotun is through a makeshift bridge locals have recently built over the Veshaw which swallowed the village on the night of September 2 for the next seven days. More than a fortnight since the first waves of river Veshaw destroyed the houses, livestock, farmland and drinking water supplies of the village, government relief and assistance has not reached here.
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The village survives mainly on its apricot and apple orchards. Nazir Ahmad Bhat says he lost around 150 apple trees. Zaheer, another local, moans the loss of his livestock and farmlands. However the most acutely felt is the loss of a house here. Of the 375 houses in the village spread over 20 sq kms, 300 have collapsed and the rest stand damaged beyond repair.
"There is no home left to live in now. After the waves over waves crashed on our village, we had to run to higher grounds in the mountains. The government is yet to provide us with water, food or tents. The nights are obviously tough to bear outside in cold and every day without potable water or food, survival is getting tougher," said Bashir Ahmad Bhat, the village sarpanch.
No casualty has been reported from the area so far.
Despite very low temperatures villagers can't take shelter in the houses that still stand because standing water has eaten through the foundations of the houses. Two houses crumbled on Tuesday night.
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Politicians of the National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti and some other leaders of her party the PDP have made trips to the village, to score points, with assembly elections round the corner. Yet no relief has come to them.
In the absence of essentials, locals are suffering from hypertension, cold, high fever, epileptic and nervous attacks, say volunteers working in the area. "We're running severely short of supplies of food, water, medicine and warm clothes. We have for the time being brought some food, water and blankets," said Imran Nabi, of Jamiat-e-Talba, the student wing of Jama'at-e-Islami. Imran is volunteering in the area with his team of 400 volunteers. He's not sure how long his team will last here.
Village elders, borrowing from local folklore, say the only time they have faced such devastation was 129 years ago when waters from Aharbal waterfall is supposed to have levelled the uneven grounds of Aedgotun.
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