Death Toll Mounts to 110 as Floods and Landslides Ravage Jammu Region

SRINAGAR: Jammu is reeling under one of the deadliest spells of rain-induced devastation in recent years, with the death toll from flash floods and landslides climbing to at least 110 across the region since August 14.

Officials confirmed that four more people were swept away by flash floods in Jammu and Samba on Thursday, even as a multiple-agency operation continued to rescue stranded residents, reconnect cut-off villages, and assess widespread damage. Four bodies were recovered from water channels in Jammu, including one from the Tawi River at Chak Rakwala, another from a nallah in Marh, one near the border fencing in R S Pura’s Karkhola area, and another in Teli Basti, Bari Brahmana.

The highest casualties have been reported from a massive landslide on the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage route in Reasi district, where the toll has now risen to 34 after more bodies were retrieved from the debris near Indraprastha Bhojnalaya at Ardhkuwari. Of these, 24 victims have been identified, including 14 women, while at least 20 others are undergoing treatment in different hospitals. The landslide struck on Tuesday afternoon, midway along the 12-km trek from Katra to the shrine.

Other rain-related tragedies have added to the mounting toll. Four people died in Doda district on Tuesday, while in Pragwal, the body of a BSF jawan was recovered, and another body was found in Akhnoor, still unidentified. In Lakhanpur near the Punjab border, an irrigation department employee lost his life. The Jammu region has also been scarred by the August 14 cloudburst in Kishtwar’s Chisoti village, which killed at least 65 people, most of them pilgrims heading to the Machail Mata shrine. More than 100 were injured in that disaster, and 32 remain missing.

Rescue agencies said over 12,000 people have so far been evacuated from flood-hit areas as waters receded in major rivers, including the Tawi, Chenab, Basantar, Ravi, and Ujh. However, extensive damage to infrastructure, bridges, and houses has been reported, with connectivity to nearly 50 villages disrupted and dozens of roads blocked due to landslides. Northern Railways, which cancelled 58 trains to and from Jammu and Katra, has begun running special services, ferrying over 2,000 stranded passengers.

Officials described the calamity as unprecedented, with the heaviest rainfall in two days triggering floods and landslides that have left a trail of devastation across the Jammu region, and said relief and rehabilitation operations would continue at full pace.