Rescuers continued digging through thick mud and debris in a remote Jammu & Kashmir village on Friday in search of survivors as the toll from a flash flood that tore through the hamlet a day earlier rose to 60 with several still missing, officials said.
Hundreds of personnel from security forces and disaster-relief agencies were scouring Chishoti village in Kishtwar district after torrential rain triggered a deluge that swept away a community kitchen and multiple structures along the route of an annual pilgrimage.
“The loss of lives is heart breaking. According to the information received, some 60 people have lost their lives, and many more are missing. We do not know their exact figure,” J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said during an Independence Day event.
Rescue teams comprising of army, Border Security Force (BSF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and J&K police personnel set up makeshift bridges over a rivulet, located next to the village, to bring the rescued to safety, officials aware of the matter said.
“The number of injured has gone to 116. Searches are on, but we don’t have any exact number of those missing. The area has a pile of slush, boulders, trees and flattened houses. The rescuers are using 12 JCB machines to remove debris and trace missing pilgrims,” an official involved in the rescue efforts said on condition of anonymity.
New visuals that emerged of Thursday’s incident showed a blast of muddy water, silt and rubble tearing through the steep slopes of the village, washing away roads, trees and bringing down houses along its path. The deluge also flattened a makeshift market where a community kitchen was being organised and overran a CISF picket in Chishoti, located around 80km from the Kishtwar district headquarters.
The village was brimming with devotees, who had gathered for the annual pilgrimage to the Chandi Mata temple in Machail village at the time of the disaster. The pilgrimage began on July 25 and was scheduled to continue till September 5. It has been put on hold.
Chishoti is the last motorable village on the way to the temple and serves as the point where the devotees start the 8.5-kilometre trek to the 9,500-feet-high shrine.The identities of the deceased were not immediately known, but officials said that most of them could be pilgrims.
“I suddenly felt the ground shaking. There were around 150 pilgrims inside the langar. Everything was swept away within seconds. I ran towards the hill and escaped,” Pardeep Singh, a sewadar or volunteer at the community kitchen, said.
Sneha Mehra, 32, one of the pilgrims, said she and her family members were swept away in the flash flood.”I was trapped in mud under a vehicle, surrounded by bodies – some of them children. After gaining my senses, I crawled to safety,” she said. Mehra was eventually reunited with her family.
Nirmala Devi, a resident of the village, said her father and uncle were among the missing. “My father, Bodh Raj, and uncle Dinanath were performing priest duties in the local temple. Both of them, along with some 15 people, were washed away in the flash floods,” she said.
The disaster came nine days after flash floods wreaked havoc in Dharali village of Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district, ripping into buildings, power lines and vehicles. Just one person has been confirmed dead in the incident, but 68 continue to be missing.
The weather department in J&K had predicted heavy rainfall, and Abdullah said they will ascertain if authorities failed to act on the warning. “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 heavy rains and flash floods?” Abdullah, who reached Kishtwar late in the evening said. The CM said he apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the ground situation and was assured of all possible help from the Centre.
Union minister Jitendra Singh said he has also left for Kishtwar. “Enroute to the cloud burst site in Chositi, I had left from Jammu by an Indian Air Force helicopter, but the chopper returned back after flying for one hour without finding it feasible to land. Immediately thereafter, I’ve left by road to reach the affected site as early as possible,” he posted on X.