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Vaishno Devi landslide toll mounts to 32 as rain wreaks havoc in Jammu region
No lessons learnt from Kishtwar tragedy, 136 lives lost in 12 days in Jammu region; LG Manoj Sinha-led admn under fire for keeping Vaishno Devi pilgrimage on despite heavy rain warning.
The death toll in the Vaishno Devi landslide has gone up to 32, officials said on Wednesday, a day after disaster struck the route on the hilltop shrine in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district.
At least 20 people were injured in the landslide triggered by heavy, relentless rain, the officials said. The pilgrimage to the shrine was suspended when the mountainside literally gave way and stones, boulders and rocks came hurtling down around 3pm on Tuesday, catching pilgrims unawares.
The landslide struck at a point about halfway along the winding 12-km trek from Katra to the shrine.
There are two routes up to the shrine -- while the yatra had been suspended on the Himkoti trek route since morning, it was going on on the old route till 1.30 pm when authorities decided to suspend it till further orders in view of the torrential rain.
‘Criminal neglect by LG-led administration’
Despite weather alerts forecasting very heavy rain with possibilities of cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides, questions are being raised about the delay of the J&K administration in suspending the trek to the shrine through the old route.The region has seen three rain-related incidents that have claimed the lives of 136 people, including 129 pilgrims, within a span of just 12 days in Kishtwar, Kathua and Reasi districts.
“When meteorological department had been regularly issuing weather forecasts on hourly basis alerting the administration about heavy rains, cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides, the administration showed ‘criminal neglect’ in not suspending the Machail Mata Yatra and Vaishno Devi pilgrimage,” said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity.
“If the administration, headed by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha, was prompt in suspending Amarnath Yatra in view of inclement weather forecasts then not suspending the Mata Machail Yatra in Kishtwar and the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage in time amounts insensitivity, including on the part of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board,” he said.
The officer held the Katra and Padder sub divisional magistrates and the shrine board responsible for the 129 deaths.
At least 65 pilgrims died in Kishtwar, 32 remain missing since August 14.
On August 17, at least seven people, including five minors, died in a cloudburst in Kathua.
‘Landslide near Adhkuwari due to tree felling’
A local from Katra, Deepak Kumar, said, “The Centre curtailed the Amarnath Yatra ahead of its scheduled culmination before revoking Article 370 in 2019, a political decision. We also remember how 12 Vaishno Devi pilgrims died in a stampede on January 1, 2022. The death of 136 people in three rain related incidents within a span of 12 days is nothing but criminal neglect by the administration headed by LG Manoj Sinha and being run by IAS bureaucrats from outside.”
Kumar attributed Tuesday’s landslide near Adhkuwari to rampant cutting of trees and laying new tracks to the cave shrine.
“We had never seen before such death and destruction on Trikuta Hills. The shrine board has ruined these hills just to increase the footfall of pilgrims so as to mint money,” he said.
“Announcing a few lakhs of rupees as ex-gratia relief and offering cosmetic condolences on social media sites can never absolve the administration of its responsibility. Accountability must be fixed on bureaucrats and stern action under law must be initiated against them but who will bell the cat when the entire system has turned insensitive to welfare of public and governance,” said a senior journalist of a national Hindi daily, Rohit Jandial.
Chief minister Omar Abdullah had said that after his government gets over with the rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations in Chishoti, he would order a probe and inquire into the reasons responsible for such a tragedy. The chief minister had pointed out to weather alerts and advisories issued by the MeT department and allied agencies.
On January 1, 2022 at least 12 Vaishno Devi pilgrims died and scores others injured in a stampede at Bhawan.
After a PIL was filed in the high court by advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed to fix responsibility, the LG’s administration through a battery of lawyers had claimed that corrective measures were initiated to prevent such an incident in the future.
The administration, however, never made public findings of the probe, which was ordered by Sinha himself.
Sinha had marked the high-level probe to a three-member panel headed by the then home secretary Shaleen Kabra. It had two other members—then divisional commissioner Raghav Langer and then ADGP Mukesh Singh.
