Nepal earthquake: Hashtag to the rescue

If all was well with the world, Bhavana Nissima would have been busy with her job as a communication consultant. Instead, all she has been doing since April 25 s stare at her computer, and scour social media to help locate people in remote villages in the quake-stricken Gorkha valley and beyond.
The Hyderabad-based Nissima orwards SOS messages from pan cky relatives and aid workers from her Twitter handle @tw_bhav to Nepal Embassy (@EONIndia), India's external affairs ministry (@MEAIndia) and NGOs.She and fellow digtal volunteers like Mamta (@silverlightgal) and Ziyaur Rahman (@infomumbai) know that he first week after a natural disaster is the toughest.
By now, this group has weathered at least four big disasters that have hit the Indian subcontinent in the last couple of years. All it takes is one terrified `OMG' tweet or post about he latest calamity to get these socially conscious netizens to swing into action. They sift through endless posts and tweets, verify data, identify the right government and relief agencies, and publish the information online.
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"Around ten of us have been help ng people connect for a while," says Vijaya Moorthy, one of the volunteers of this online information hub, nCrisisRelief. During the 2014 J-K loods, the team helped Indian Army's social media handles reach out o those affected. This time, they have provided corporate and NGO contacts and leads about lost people o the Embassy of Nepal in Delhi while it was grappling with panicked calls in the first few days.
"It is very helpful when we get information about where relief is needed," says Shivani Basnet, second secretary, embassy of Nepal, who is in-charge of social media.
Digital aid sometimes starts even before rescue work kicks off in earnest. Mumbai girl Mamta, who prefers to be known by her first name, says she and Bhavana started monitoring social media within a few hours of the first tremor. "We were literally tweeting and retweeting in real time even as various areas of Nepal were experiencing more tremors," she says. By the end of the day, they got a fair idea of the extent of the damage. Next day, more people came on board and and they started coordinating on #NepalQuakeRelief.
Arriving at the right hashtag proved crucial for better information flow. Nissima, Mamta and a few others had the toughest job --to track SOS calls, find out where the lost trekkers are, as well as field queries from anxious Nepalis about their families in remote villages. Once information is sourced, they try to find details about the area so that a meaningful alert can be sent to the authorities.
"Nepal was new to us and civilian contact wasn't easy," says Nissima. That is where enterprising users like @infomumbai and unknown volunteers like @northmenPK (probably from Pakistan) and @captainjanam helped. While 27-year-old Rahman (@infomumbai), who knows Nepali, called up Nepalese officials for details, @northmenPK kept track of several Everest trekkers.
When good news comes, it's a wonderful feeling.
"There was this mother who was looking for a pregnant relative stuck somewhere in Sindhupalchok, one of the worst-hit places," says Nissi ma. Rahman discovered that the army had rescued them, and the woman had safely given birth. But volunteers have to brace for tragedy as well. Nissima says it was tough having to message trekker Renu Fotedar's family about her death.
The team also called on previ ous corporate and NGO allies to start relief operations simultane ously. "We activated the same network and chain of command," says Raheel Khursheed, volunteer and Twitter head of news, politics and government. As NGO Goonj, and companies like Cipla, Indigo and Biocon expressed willingness to help, the contacts were passed to the embassy. It also cut through the maze of information and directed people to donate directly to the Nepal PM's relief fund.
There are plans to come up with a protocol eventually and firm up the coalition for the whole of South East Asia.