When rain ravaged the hilly heights of the Himalayas and beyond, the gaze of the global media fell mainly on the victims in Pakistan and China.

Many ignored the happenings in Leh, in the Ladakh region of Kashmir.

It was reported that 179 people were killed, 200 missing, 400 injured and nearly 20,000 left homeless in the mudslides and flooding that hit the region on Aug 6.

Among the people affected were almost 2,000 foreigners who were enjoying the peak trekking season in Ladakh.

Tourism officials said three of them were killed and the Indian army rescued 185 of them after roads and trekking trails in remote areas were washed away.

However, instead of catching the first available flight out of Leh, many of these foreigners stayed behind to help the survivors.

“When I realised just how bad the situation was, I came here to help,” Ms Josephine Penni Stefansson, a 26-year-old schoolteacher from Sweden, told AFP.

“And I’m in no hurry to leave. In the beginning there were about a 100 of us helping out, but as the road links came back and the flights restarted, a lot of people started drifting away. You can’t force anyone to stay.”

Another tourist, 19-year-old Hanni Schmidt from Germany, has been helping out at a government hospital which was affected by the rivers of mud.

The hospital’s blood bank, laboratory and nursery, as well as the doctors’ treatment rooms, were simply submerged under tonnes of watery sludge that is only now beginning to dry and remains almost impenetrable.

Ms Schmidt is one of a dozen Western tourists who used shovels to dredge out one of the wards, filling and passing earthen bowls of mud down a human chain.

“We’ve just been emptying the rooms of the mud and piling it up outside. It’s been a group with people from all over the world. A real experience,” said MsSchmidt, who has been at the hospital every day for the past week.

Indian relief efforts

India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh visited Leh on Aug 17 and announced a grant of Rs125 crores ($36 million).

He said that all the houses destroyed would be rebuilt before the onset of winter.

He also promised Rs100,000 to the family of every victim and Rs50,000 each to the injured.

The Hindustan Times reported that after Lady Gaga voiced support for the victims, by tweeting the numbers of various helplines, Bollywood celebrities are also using Twitter to help relief work as much as possible.

This article was first published in tabla!.