Rescue operation in Kishtwar enters 4th day

Chisoti (Padder), Aug 17: The rescue operations in Chisoti village in Padder, Kishtwar in Chenab Valley, continued for the fourth day, with the officials having recovered 61 bodies so far, with 20 remaining unidentified in mortuaries and over 70 persons still missing.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, officials confirmed the grim numbers.

“Sixty-one bodies have been recovered. About 20 remain unidentified in mortuaries,” said a Revenue officer who was jotting down the deaths, injuries, and losses to residential, commercial, and religious property. “Eighty-seven families of pilgrims with missing relatives have reported at our centre. There are nine other centres that have been set up by the Revenue Department in different areas of the Kishtwar district. Those centres, too, have reported missing pilgrims. The process is smooth, and there is no duplication of missing persons in our centres. The death toll is likely to go further up and might even reach over 130. However, many bodies washed away by the roaring waters of the River Chenab may never be found.”

Meanwhile, joint teams carried out three controlled explosions to clear giant boulders hampering the search for survivors and bodies at one of the worst-hit spots, officials said.

They said rescuers carried out three controlled blasts within a span of 45 minutes on Sunday to clear massive rocks near the devastated langar site, enabling movement of heavy machinery and speeding up the operations.

Army engineers have also begun work on a bailey bridge to restore connectivity to Chisoti, the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata shrine, where the cloudburst triggered massive flash floods on August 14.

The flash floods triggered by the cloudburst left over 100 people injured and caused large-scale devastation.

A makeshift market, a community kitchen site for Machail Mata Yatra, 16 residential houses, government buildings, three temples, four water mills, a 30-metre-long bridge, and over a dozen vehicles were washed away or flattened in the flash floods.

Despite overcast conditions, rescue efforts continued with the joint teams of Police, Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), civil administration, and local volunteers.

More than a dozen earthmovers and other heavy equipment have been pressed into service, while the NDRF has deployed dog squads to trace the missing.

Work on the bailey bridge is progressing at full pace and was only paused temporarily when controlled explosions were carried out, officials said.