Leave a trail of destruction including damaged houses, loss of lives and standing crops.
Srinagar: Cloudbursts at different places in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in Kishtwar and at the base of the Amarnath cave in South Kashmir, have left a trail of destruction, including damaged houses, loss of human lives and huge loss of standing crops.
Heavy rains and cloudbursts were also reported in Bandipora district of North Kashmir and also in the Kargil district of UT of Ladakh. The real tragedy hit Kishtwar district as a huge cloudburst at the Honzar village not only washed away villagers, but also damaged a lot of property and crops. According to officials, bodies of seven persons were recovered in the Honzar flash floods triggered by the cloudburst and 17 villagers were rescued, most of them with injuries.
There is a long wait for those 20 families whose dear ones are still not traceable to rescue teams. L-G Manoj Sinha has already announced ex-gratia for the dead and injured in this incident. Police and local authorities of Kishtwar have told media that due to the flash floods, 21 houses, cow sheds, a ration depot, a bridge and a mosque were washed away while many other properties got partially damaged.
While the government said that a joint rescue operation by the police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) is going on in full swing to locate the missing people, including nine women, people of the area have lost hope about them being alive and they are only waiting for the bodies. Though the teams deputed for the rescue operations could not work due to the heavy rains on Thursday night, on Friday, they resumed operations, though the details of retrieving of any bodies were not known yet to the media.
Earlier, on the request of the J&K government, the Indian Air Force (IAF) pressed three helicopters from Jammu, Srinagar, and Udhampur and made eight sorties, transferring relief load of 2,250 kg, 44 NDRF, and SRDF personnel, and four medical assistants, besides evacuating two critically injured persons from Soundar to Kishtwar for specialized treatment.
Six teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) with sophisticated equipment are involved in the operation, along with other rescuers from the police, Army and local volunteers, the government told media in Jammu.
In Kargil district, due to the frequent cloudbursts, there were flash floods and these floods damaged properties and also standing crops in this hilly district. Damage was also reported to the hydroelectric power station in Kargil due to these flash floods. Residents of Kargil told reporters that the flash floods have washed away standing crops and have also damaged their houses. Similar reports have come from the Bandipora district where cloudbursts resulted in damage to houses in the upper reaches of Aloosa village. Standing crops and some orchards were damaged. Heavy rains triggered massive landslides near the Amarnath cave on the side of Ganderbal district. Security forces deployed in the area reported that the rains triggered massive mudslides.
District Magistrate Ganderbal Kritika Jyotsana told local media that there was no loss of life and they have already started the process of removing the mudslides. “The slides have occurred in Brari Patri and between lower cave and holy cave,” DC Ganderbal said. The Meteorological department of J&K had predicted heavy rains, cloudbursts and flash floods in all the hilly areas of Jammu and Kashmir.