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Cold wave claims lives of two nomad children in Kashmir
The family of nomads had been living in a ramshackle shed covered with tarpaulin and polythene in a forest area of Devsar in Kulgam district.
The death of two minor children aged 10 and 6 of a nomad family in a Kulgam forest one after another in the past two days apparently due to intense cold has triggered a wave of anger and gloom in Kashmir valley.
The family of Zubair Ahmad alias Zair Khan from Reasi in Jammu district, had been living up in a ramshackle shed covered with tarpaulin and polythene in a forest area of Devsar in Kulgam district amid an intense cold wave in Kashmir valley.
Locals and officials said that Ahmad's 10-year-old son Sahil Zubair, who was suffering from fever for the past few days, died on Saturday.
“We are poor people and are living in this shed. This cold killed my son and now my young daughter is also very ill,” sobbing Mumtaz mother of the children told a local journalist on video on Sunday.
The couple’s 6-year-old daughter Shazia Jan was rushed to a health facility but could not survive and died on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
“The two were not brought to any hospital of the district,” said chief medical officer of Kulgam, Dr Fazil Kochak.
“The two children have died – one on Saturday and another on Sunday night,” said Rashid Ahmad, Tehsildar Devsar who had gone to the family to give a few blankets and a bag of ration earlier on Saturday.
He again returned with additional deputy commissioner Showkat Ahmad Rather on Monday after the girl’s death.
"They had not informed us of the boy's illness," the tehsildar said.
“After the snowfall on January 3, the in-charge of a nearby school had announced that the building is open for the affected. We had given them the option but they did not listen saying that they wanted to take care of their animals. Even today they were asked to shift into the school but they refused. Now they shifted to a few rooms of a nearby house,” said Rashid Ahmad.
CPI (M) leader and former MLA of Kulgam, M Y Tarigami blamed the deaths on the 'failure' of the administration.
“This tragic incident speaks volumes about the failure of administration in protecting the marginalized sections of society. We must strive and struggle collectively for ensuring justice to our people,” he said in a tweet.
Kashmir received very heavy snowfall particularly in Kulgam district between January 3 and 8 blocking the roads in most of the districts. After the snowfall, the valley is reeling under very intense cold with night temperatures plunging to record sub-zero levels. Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded a minimum temperature of -8.4 degrees Celsius on January 14, which broke the record of last 25 years.
Ahmad’s family, along with three other families, are nomads and normally would move from Jammu to Kashmir in summers along with their flock of animals and then return when winter sets in here. Officials said that this year they had decided to stay put and Ahmad perhaps wanted to work as a labourer.
Officials said that Ahmad had three children from his second wife of which only one survives now. They said his children from first wife are older and one of them is married. Ahmad’s daughter-in-law is pregnant and living with them.
Additional deputy commissioner Kulgam Showkat Ahmad Rather said the family has been taken to a hospital put under the supervision of medical superintendent Kulgam hospital.
“They are saying the children died due to cold but we had asked them to shift into a school beforehand during snowfall but they did not listen. The family is poor and appears very pale. We have now shifted them all including the pregnant daughter-in-law of Ahmad to the hospital for observation,” Rather said.
He said that the school in which they were earlier asked to shift was just 30 metres away from their tent in the forest. “They said they wanted to live with the local population where they have shifted now in a house. This is an unfortunate incident. Even an adult may die of cold in these circumstances,” he said.
