Kishtwar: Debris and wreckage following a cloudburst, at Chisoti village, in Kishtwar. (PTI Photo)
KISHTWAR: The death toll in the cloudburst-triggered flash flood that devastated Chishoti in J&K’s Kishtwar district rose to at least 60 on Friday as rescue workers dug out more bodies from the debris of a pilgrim campsite along the Machail Mata trail that bore the brunt of the calamity. Dozens are still reported missing, raising the possibility of casualties spiking as the hours tick by.Uprooted trees, boulders the size of houses and mounds of sludge sat where rows of tents and food stalls had been set up to cater to pilgrims either making their way to the ancient Machail Mata temple – 8.5km from the site – or making a stopover on their way back.Remnants of a wooden bridge, a rucksack, shoes entangled in the branches of uprooted pines and cars half buried under the rubble spoke of the gale force with which the sudden flooding occurred. Many of the victims were pilgrims having lunch at the langar (community kitchen) there.CM Omar Abdullah, who cancelled his “At Home” tea party scheduled for Independence Day after the disaster, reached Kishtwar on Friday to take stock. He told reporters that besides the confirmed deaths and those still missing, over 100 people were injured in the disaster.Officials said 167 survivors had been rescued till late Friday, while 69 other people believed to have been there at the time of the cloudburst were still to be found. Witnesses said they heard what sounded like a blast, followed by a ferocious burst of water and boulders and logs tearing through the pilgrims’ campsite and the vicinity.”Within two minutes of the cloudburst, we were trapped in water up to our knees,” said Suresh Mehra, who was on the Machail Mata pilgrimage with five relatives. “We hurried to what appeared to be the safer side of the village. When he turned around to look, the site behind us was ravaged.”An injured pilgrim receiving treatment at Kishtwar district hospital said everything happened in a flash. “We had just finished tea in a restaurant when we heard security personnel asking us to run. My sister and nephew are still missing. It was over in seconds,” he said.Braving intermittent rains, rescuers continued their search for survivors for the second consecutive day. They used excavators to remove the rubble in a desperate attempt to find the bodies.The annual 40-day pilgrimage, which attracts over 3 lakh pilgrims, was scheduled to end on September 5, but has been suspended.”People should share the photos of their missing relatives. We retrieved 46 bodies yesterday and hope to retrieve more bodies from the rubble,” BJP legislator Sunil Sharma said.”I have received countless phone calls from relatives of the missing,” said Pooja Thakur, chairperson of the Kishtwar District Development Council. We have no idea how many are dead. Some of the bodies we found were unrecognisable.”The administration has set up a control room-cum-help desk in Padder, about 15km from Chashoti, to assist people looking for missing people.There are two villages ahead of the cloudburst-hit belt – Machail and Hamori – where hundreds of people are stranded, officials said.
