Search and rescue operations are on after at least seven people — five of them children aged between 2 and 15 — were killed and several injured in flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain and a possible cloudburst in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, officials said on Sunday.
This comes just days after a similar incident caused by a cloudburst in Kishtwar district claimed at least 60 lives.
A family was feared buried after a landslide hit a place called Juthana Jodh in the early hours of Sunday. It was around the same time that suspected cloudbursts struck Jodh Ghati, a remote village in Rajbagh area of the district, and two other locations nearby, snapping access to the village due to flash floods.
Initially, four persons were reported to have died in Jodh Ghati. “During rescue operations, we recovered three more bodies — one in Jodh Ghati and two in Janglote. The death toll has gone up to seven now,” said the district police chief, Shobhit Saxena.
Six of the injured were airlifted for hospitalisation at Mamoon in Pathankot in neighbouring Punjab, said union minister Jitendra Singh, who is the Lok Sabha member from the area.
{{/usCountry}}Six of the injured were airlifted for hospitalisation at Mamoon in Pathankot in neighbouring Punjab, said union minister Jitendra Singh, who is the Lok Sabha member from the area.
{{/usCountry}}Victims identified in Jodh Ghati, Janglote
The deceased were identified as Renu Devi, 39 and her daughter Radhika, 9, from Bagra in Janglote. In Jodh Ghati, those killed were Surmu Din, 30, and his sons Fanu, 6, and Shedu, 5; besides Tahu, 2, and Zulfan, 15, according to district officials.
“The incidents occurred between 3.30 and 4 am,” said inspector Ajay Singh from the the police station of Rajbagh area, “Advance parties have reached the area.”
Heavy rain over the past few days had led to sharp increase in the levels in Sahar Khad and Ujh rivers, officials told HT. It was Ujh river that saw flash floods early Sunday, it is learnt.
Water entered the industrial area, a Kendriya Vidyalala campus and the police station in Janglote, too, HT learnt. Railway tracks and roads were also affected. The police station at Kathua saw major waterlogging.
Landslides hit Bagard and Changda villages, too, under the jurisdiction of Kathua police station and Dilwan-Hutli in Lakhanpur police station area but there was no major report of damage, PTI reported.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha expressed deep anguish at the loss of lives. Sinha said he had briefed union home minister Amit Shah.
Shah made an X post assuring full support in the rescue operations.
A joint team of the police and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) was already at the spot, officials said.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Shobhit Saxena said he could not say if it was a cloudburst, but there were flash floods and landslided. "We have also informed the army; they are on a standby,” he told HT.
A cloudburst, according to the Indian Meteorological Department, is a sudden downpour of over 100 mm of rain in just one hour.
Union minister Jitendra Singh, Lok Sabha member from the area, posted on X: “The civilian Administration, Military and Paramilitary has swung into action. The situation being continuously monitored.”
Operation on in Kishtwar too
Earlier, at least 60 people, most of them pilgrims, were killed in flash floods on the Machail Mata Yatra route at Chasoti village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district on Thursday afternoon.
Kathua is in a southern corner of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, bordering Punjab, while Kishtwar is in its northeast, next to Himachal Pradesh.
At the disaster site in Kishtwar district, security forces led by the Indian Army have intensified rescue operations, ANI reported on Sunday.
Major General APS Bal said, “We are also providing relief to the local people who have suffered due to this disaster.”
The Indian Army is leading ground operations, supported by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), police, and the local administration.