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Tarsar Lake mishap: Tourist guide’s body recovered, Uttarakhand man still missing
The tourist from Uttarakhand is still missing while the rest of the group has been rescued by the authorities. Officials said the body of Shakeel Ahmad, 25, a resident of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal, was found at Lidderwat in Anantnag
The body of a local tourist guide, part of a group of 13 tourists and locals on a trekking trip, was recovered on Thursday, a day after he went missing while trying to save a tourist from drowning near Tarsar Lake in south Kashmir’s Anantnag during a flood-like situation.
The tourist from Uttarakhand is still missing while the rest of the group has been rescued by the authorities. Officials said the body of Shakeel Ahmad, 25, a resident of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal, was found at Lidderwat in Anantnag. They said he had tried to save the tourist after he was washed away due to fast flowing water from a bridge over Lidder stream.
“We have recovered Shakeel’s body downstream at Lidderwath but efforts are on to trace the tourist -- Dr Mahesh from Uttarakhand,” said Pahalgam Tehsildar Mohammad Hussain.
The group of 13, including eight tourists and five guides, trekkers and pony guides, were on a trekking trip to Tarsar Lake when heavy rainfall swelled rivers and lakes in the region. Flood was declared in south Kashmir at 2pm on Wednesday when the water-level crossed 21-ft.
“The group was crossing the Lidder stream over a bridge when high-flowing water washed away Dr Mahesh. Ahmad tried to rescue the tourist but he too drowned in the process,” said Hussain. “Of the 13, we have rescued 11,” he said.
The administration had sent a rescue team on Wednesday which also included a team from NDRF, local rafting association and police.
Officials have deployed rafting boats all along the Lidder to trace the body of the tourist.
“Owing to incessant rain over five days, the flow of the stream had increased substantially. The conditions have also become very slippery,” he said.
Meanwhile, the water-level in Jhelum River and its tributaries have come down substantially in south Kashmir and also to some extent in Srinagar following the improvement in weather conditions since Wednesday afternoon.
The water-level at Sangam came down to 16.31-ft at 5 pm on Thursday from a high of 22.09-ft at 8pm on Wednesday after flood was declared at 21-ft.
Similarly, in Srinagar’s Ram Munshi Bagh observatory, the water-level came down to 18.46-ft at 5 pm on Thursday from a high of 19.77-ft at 4 am.
The level is still above the flood declaration mark of 18-ft.
“The maximum gauge of 22.09-ft was recorded at Sangam yesterday evening at 8pm. Current, reading at Sangam is 19.65-ft at 8am, the gauge has dropped by just 2.44 feet in 12 hours. Normally, the Sangam gauge should have dropped by more than 6-ft by now,” said the irrigation and flood control department in a post on Facebook.
“It is a rare event, probably indicating one or two catchments (Vishow & Rambiyara) had received very high intensity rains that ensured continuous discharge is fed to Sangam (weak enough that it couldn’t push the gauge up but strong enough to ensure that gauge didn’t reduce quickly),” it said.
