Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Khevsureti over Here in Six-Hour Drive

September 28, 2010
Landslide, Mouse, Eight-Month Winter

Tea Topuria

“We often have landslide here but we cannot prevent it?” Nodar Chincharauli from Shatili does not have to go out - he can show mountains to us sitting on his balcony. “The landslide falls from that mountain. Two men died in Ardaki village two years ago. They were hunting and the landslide killed them – their surnames were Zviadauri and Ardoteli. Five years ago two men died near Khakhmati – Zviadauri and Daiauri.”

Shota Arabuli from Korsha said that landslide falls everywhere. Last year it even killed cattle. “There were occasions when tractors were cleaning the landslide but the second landslide buried the tractor.”

The biggest problem in Khevsureti region is damaged road – 100 kilometers from Zhinvali. It is not long way but it might destroy your health till you reach Khevsureti. You have to stand six-hour-long jolting and periodic pauses to rest. Not every car is able to drive across some parts of the road so you have to walk there. The road has never been covered with asphalt; nobody has ever managed to do it. Meanwhile, nobody is left in Khevsureti to visit. The region is getting abandoned day-by-day. Only one family is living in many villages of the region.

The Aragvi River has washed out the soil from the road in some places and the landslide is originating from it. There is a landslide at the entrance to Mutso village. The road might be blocked at any time and the village might get isolated from the environment.

Nevertheless, Aragvi River does not threaten only road. The dams of the river are damaged in three places in the village of Korsha. The villager Shota Arabuli said the river often over-floods and flows into the houses.

The second problem is the ruins of the rock. Here, the stone is as fragile as clay. The rock and not only the ruins are falling on the road. If you are unlucky enough to be in the area during the rock-fall, you might be buried on the place. Another problem is that the collapsed rock narrows the already-narrow road and sometimes it blocks it completely.

Shota Arabuli: “The road is narrowed in many places from Pshavi: near Magharoskari, Chargali, Gudani, Khakhmati, Barisakho…”

Nodar Chincharauli: “In some places two cars cannot move alongside each other. The road shall be repaired with its dams, drainers, landslide-avoiders. Vazha-Pshavela (famous Georgian writer in the late 19th century; born in Khevsureti region) said in his poem – “I call it road but it is not road at all…” it remained in the same condition since Vazha’s time though one and half century has already passed.”

Indeed, the climate has changed and the road remained the same. Khevsureti dwellers say the last winter was the ever-warmest. “We had flies and locust all year long; the bees were leaving bee-houses. And the land did not get frozen at all.”

“There are no Tsnori trees left in the region. The plants which used to grow only in the lowlands now appeared in the mountains too. Rain was falling all winter-long instead snow.”

“In spring, huge migrating birds used to fly over our mountain; they used to cover the sky. We called them Bora, Chokva…but we have not seen them for the last few years.”

“The hedgehog s appeared in Korsha village; they did not live here in the past.”

“I wish we also had hedgehogs in Shatili too; they could have eaten up mice; we cannot get rid of them…”

How Cats Died in Khevsureti?

A lot of animals live near Shatili – but they do not bother people. The wolves and bears mostly attack the village of Kistani. There people have sheep and cattle. The wolves ate two horses in Shatili too; and one in the past. How can it be said that animals do not bother people but locals do not complain about wolves. Now, the mice have attacked Shatili and destroy their harvest.

Dato Chincahrauli: “We cannot understand what kind of animals they are – mice, rats or marten. We had never seen them here before. They are running everywhere except our houses but in the yard they have eaten everything what we had - potatoes or other vegetables.”

There are a lot of mice holes in the area. They even have dug their own roads. They are sapping the old TV-set in the yard and soon it will fall into the depth.

Nodar Chincharauli: “Initially they appeared on the other bank of the river; and then they appeared here too. We put poisons for them but cats caught poisoned rats, ate them and then died of the poison. So, we have killed our cats instead rats.”

Indeed, there are no cats to be seen in Shatili. Locals say they would bring kittens from Tbilisi but they do not hope it will help them.

“How can cat kill those rats? They are dragging a TV-set into their hole.”

P.S.

-What other problems do you have here?

-We are abandoned by everybody. That is our problem. We lag behind life.

The other life ends at the Datvijvarli pass… particularly in winter when snow and landslide blocks the road and the reversed Khevsureti can be reached only be a single helicopter. The eight months passes in similar situation. Somebody might think that only a hero can live in Khevsureti; others will think that it can be only a fanatical desire of a person to live there. It is fact that if one day every resident of Khevsureti region “becomes clever” and heads to Tbilisi, the border of Georgia might be moved to Pasanauri, close to Tbilisi. Paving the road is a priority of the government but nothing has planned in Khevsureti in this direction.

However, the Khevsureti is said to be a remote place only because of the bad road. In fact, if there were a proper road, you can reach it as fast as Khashuri, a town in Shida Kartli region. 

News