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Need to consult experts for risk mitigation: J&K CM in Kishtwar
60 people were killed and over 100 injured when cloudburst triggered flash floods at Chasoti, the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata temple in Kishtwar district, on Thursday. Over 80 people are reported missing.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday expressed concern over the recent natural calamities in the Union Territory, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and called for consultation with experts to see what can be done to “mitigate the risks and dangers”.
Talking to reporters near Chasoti on his return to this cloudburst-hit remote village in Kishtwar district, he said the entire Himalayan belt is now more prone to glacial lake bursts and cloudbursts. He was responding to a question about the possibility of forming a team of experts by his government to safeguard the fragile ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We are going to have a look at it. It is not just what is happening in J&K. Look at the scary videos that we saw from Uttarakhand. What is happening in Himachal? We are all now, I think, prone to these glacial lake bursts and cloudbursts. To deal with this freak weather, we will have to collectively and individually consult experts to see what we can do to mitigate the risks and the dangers of these things,” Abdullah said.
Around 60 people were killed and over 100 injured when a massive cloudburst triggered flash floods at Chasoti, the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata temple in Kishtwar district, on Thursday afternoon. Over 80 people are reported missing by their family members following the cloudburst.
Asked whether his government will regulate pilgrimages in the mountainous regions, he said that earlier these yatras were restricted to small groups of pilgrims ranging between 100 and 400 but now thousands of people are visiting.
“Obviously, after seeing the changing patterns of the weather, we will have to think about a little more regulation, registration, etc. But if I make an announcement today, then it will be a mistake on my part because people’s religious emotions are also involved in this,” he said. “We have to consult the religious leader, the people who are associated with these local pilgrimages, and take some steps,” Abdullah said.
He said though around 80 people were reported missing in the flash floods triggered by cloudburst, it is not the final number. “Some people might have no mobile coverage or stopped halfway due to the circumstances (cloudburst). So do not take it (missing figures) as the final number. It will keep changing from time to time,” the CM said.
He said the flash floods brought down big rocks and “where we are standing used to be a river (bank). This was not a lake. It is a river, which has changed into a lake after the recent cloudburst. Some people washed away by the flash flood cannot be ruled out and our efforts are to find them and retrieve their bodies so that these could be handed over to their families.”
Local residents confront CM
The anger of people seeking information about their kin missing in the aftermath of a cloudburst is quite understandable, Abdullah said after several residents confronted him in Chasoti and vented their frustration.
He said the focus of the rescue operation right now is to find those still trapped under the debris.A coordinated operation is underway in the village where 80 people have been reported missing by their families, even as locals and witnesses claim that hundreds may have been swept away by the flash flood and buried under boulders, logs, and rubble.
After being briefed by a senior army officer, the chief minister met affected families on both sides of the stream, connected by a makeshift bridge made of logs. The chief minister invited them to a nearby tent to listen to their grievances, but some of them were reluctant. Following this, Abdullah left the scene.
“I can understand their anger. They have been waiting for their missing family members for the past two days. They want an answer. They want to know if their family members will come out alive or not,” he told reporters on his return journey.
The chief minister said the demand of the people is that if those missing are no longer alive, then the bodies should be handed over to them at the earliest for the last rites.
All-out rescue efforts underway
“We have deployed as many forces as we could, whether it is the NDRF, SDRF, Army, Jammu and Kashmir police or the CISF. We are trying to rescue the trapped people. And where there is no rescue, we will at least retrieve the bodies and hand them over to their families,” Abdullah said.
Tragedy struck Chasoti around 12:25 pm on August 14, flattening a makeshift market, a community kitchen site for the pilgrimage, and a security outpost.
At least 16 houses and government buildings, three temples, four water mills, a 30-metre-long bridge, and over a dozen vehicles were also damaged in the flash flood.
The annual Machail Mata Yatra, which began on July 25 and was scheduled to conclude on September 5, remained suspended for the third consecutive day on Saturday.
The 8.5-km trek to the 9,500-foot-high shrine starts from Chasoti, around 90km from Kishtwar town.
