March 31, 12.25pm. It was just another afternoon in the Central Kolkata neighbourhood of Burrabazaar, the crowded wholesale market that had grabbed headlines for a major fire outbreak barely four years ago. Unknown to the bustling crowds, yet another disaster was waiting to happen there — within seconds the unfinished Vivekananda Road flyover came crashing down on pedestrians and commuters. The number of dead, at last count, is 27, while the injured (some reports put the number at 90) are still recovering in hospitals across the city.
Occuring as it did just days ahead of the first phase of Assembly elections in West Bengal, reports of gross negligence by the builders and political blame-gaming vitiated the atmosphere even as the army, along with members of the National Disaster Response Force and local residents, worked round-the-clock to rescue those trapped under the debris. Disturbing images of ‘disaster tourists’ — people flocking to the site to click selfies — surfaced on social media, drawing sharp criticism from people across the world.
Swastik Pal is a Kolkata-based documentary photographer