Raksha Bandhan reunion ends in tragedy as flash floods claim sister’s life

Chisoti (Padder), Aug 19: For Navratan, 29, Raksha Bandhan was meant to be a day of blessings and love.

Instead, it became the last memory of his sister.

His sister, Jai Mala, 28, had come home to Chisoti village on August 9 to tie the Rakhi on his wrist.

She prayed for his long life, blessed him at the temple, and stayed back a few more days at her parents’ insistence.

“She loved me more than anyone else,” Navratan said, clutching the faded Rakhi still tied around his wrist. “I never thought that Rakhi would be our last. Now, all I wish is to find her body to give her the farewell she deserves.”

On August 14, a sudden cloudburst unleashed flash floods through Bodh Nalla, a tributary of the Chenab.

The waters swallowed their home, one of nine washed away in minutes.

Navratan survived by chance as he had stepped into the courtyard.

His sister and their mother, who were cooking inside, were swept away.

“I shouted their names until my throat went dry,” he said. “I searched among the ruins, along the banks, but the Chenab had swallowed them whole. It was as if the earth itself had betrayed us.”

The tragedy was part of a disaster that has claimed at least 68 lives across Padder, with nearly 70 others still missing.

More than 100 people are injured and undergoing treatment in hospitals across the Jammu division.

The victims include 13 villagers from Chisoti itself, among them two priests who were leading prayers at the temples.

The village had been serving as a base camp for the annual Mata Chandi Yatra pilgrimage to the Machael shrine, about 10 km away.

The family’s grief is compounded by displacement.

With no trace of their home left, they have nowhere to rebuild.

Their father, Rakesh Kumar, a daily wage worker with the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department, is inconsolable.

“I lost my wife. I lost my daughter. Tell me, what is left for me now?” he said, staring at the Chenab, where rescuers say only dismembered body parts have surfaced in recent days.

Navratan keeps replaying the last moments he saw his sister.

“She was telling me to have lunch before she left for Gulabgarh,” he said. “Instead, the river took her. How do I explain to her sons that their mother is gone forever?”

Jai Mala leaves behind her husband, Mangat Ram, a daily wage employee, and two young sons in Gulabgarh.

The family that once celebrated a sister’s prayers for her brother’s protection now finds itself   broken by the same river that carried her away.