Kishtwar/Jammu, Aug 15 (PTI) Braving intermittent rains, rescuers intensified their search for survivors in a cloudburst-hit village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district on Friday, even as Chief minister Omar Abdullah put the death toll in the tragic incident at 60, with an unspecified number of people still trapped.
Disaster struck Chisoti, the last motorable village on the way to the Machail Mata temple, around 12:25 pm on Thursday, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Rescuers pulled out 46 bodies, including that of two Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, on Thursday. In addition, 167 people have been rescued in an injured condition, while 69 others were reported missing by their relatives.
Thirty bodies have been identified and handed over to the victims’ families.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Abdullah and Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday and assured them of all help.
A large number of people had gathered in Chisoti for the annual Machail Mata pilgrimage that began on July 25 and was scheduled to end on September 5. The 8.5-km trek to the 9,500-foot shrine begins from Chisoti, which is located about 90 km from Kishtwar town. The yatra remained suspended for a second day on Friday.
The deluge flattened a makeshift market, a langar (community kitchen) site for the pilgrimage and a security outpost, besides damaging 16 residential houses and government buildings, three temples, four water mills, a 30-metre span bridge and more than a dozen vehicles.
The rescue-and-relief operation was suspended late on Thursday night. It resumed with the first light of the day despite rains, with the rescuers — comprising police, Army, NDRF, SDRF personnel and local volunteers — sifting through the rubble to find the survivors.
The rains stopped around 7 am, leading to further intensification of the rescue mission, the officials said, adding that more bodies were retrieved from the debris but there were no survivors as chances of finding anyone alive diminished with each passing hour. Another spell of rain lashed the area for 20 minutes around 11:15 am.
In a post on X, Modi said, “Spoke to Jammu and Kashmir LG, Shri Manoj Sinha Ji and CM Shri Omar Abdullah Ji regarding the situation in the wake of the cloudburst and flooding in Kishtwar.” “Authorities are working on the ground to assist those affected,” he added.
Addressing an Independence-Day function at Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium, Abdullah said at least 60 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in the tragic incident.
The chief minister also said in the coming days, “we will have to figure out why this happened. Was there any lapse on the part of the administration, because we already had a weather forecast (about the possibility of heavy rains and flash floods)”.
“Could we have taken more steps from the government and the administration to save those precious lives? We have to make ourselves accountable,” he added.
More than a dozen earth-movers requisitioned by the district administration have joined the rescue operation to move giant boulders, uprooted trees and electricity poles, the officials said.
Another team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel with special equipment joined the search operation on Friday morning.
Jammu Divisional Commissioner Ramesh Kumar, along with Inspector General of Police, Jammu, Bhim Sen Tuti, visited the scene to review the rescue-and-relief operation, the officials said.
Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Sharma, along with Senior Superintendent of Police Naresh Singh, is camping in the area since Thursday to oversee the multi-agency operation on the ground.
Sharma, who is supervising the operation, said choppers could not be operated due to bad weather, so the NDRF team came by road from Udhampur.
Two more teams are on their way and will be joining the operation, the officials said.
To identify the deceased, the authorities shared their pictures through a WhatsApp group with the affected families, resulting in the identification of 30 of them.
The Union Territory administration has set up a control room-cum-help desk in Padder, about 15 km from Chositi, to assist people and pilgrims.
Five officials have been put on duty at the control room. The numbers provided are — 9858223125, 6006701934, 9797504078, 8492886895, 8493801381, and 7006463710.
There are two villages ahead of the cloudburst-hit belt — Machail and Hamori — where hundreds of people are stranded, the officials said, adding that their mobile phone batteries have been exhausted due to the snapping of the power supply to the belt following the disaster.
Once contact is established, authorities will get to know the exact whereabouts of these people, they said.
The Army has also inducted one more column to intensify the search-and-rescue operations, they said. Rashtriya Rifles troops have joined the operation.
Five columns of 60 personnel each, totalling 300 troops, along with medical detachments of the White Knight Corps, are on the ground, working tirelessly in coordination with police, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and civilian agencies to save lives and assist those in need.
Videos showed torrents of muddy water, silt and rubble tearing through the steep slopes, destroying everything on the way. Houses folded over like a pack of cards, rocks came tumbling down, blocking roads and rescue paths.
The Jammu and Kashmir health and medical education department has reinforced critical infrastructure to ensure optimal patient care in the wake of the tragedy.
A health department official said a team of specialist doctors from PGI-Chandigarh is slated to reach the Government Medical College (GMC) in Jammu to assist in medical care and bolster critical-care capabilities.
Senior officers of the department are stationed at Padder, overseeing rescue and medical operations, he said, adding that the district hospital at Kishtwar has been prepped up with the additional deployment of general and orthopaedic surgeons, and anaesthetists from the GMC in Doda.
Immediately following the incident, 65 ambulances from the health department, NHPC, Army, CRPF and 108 Emergency Service of the Jammu and Kashmir health and medical education department were deployed for rescue and patient transfer, the official said.
The fragile Himalayan slopes faced the disaster just nine days after flash floods wreaked havoc in Dharali village of Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district. Though only one person is confirmed dead in that incident, 68 people are still reported missing. PTI TAS AB RC
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