Rescuers search for missing flash flood victims in remote Kashmir village
Teams of disaster management officials, police and soldiers helped by local villagers scoured the devastated Himalayan village of Chositi on Friday.
Officials halted rescue operations overnight but rescued at least 300 people Thursday after a powerful cloudburst triggered floods and landslides. Officials said many missing people were believed to have been washed away. More rescue teams were headed to the area to strengthen relief operations.
At least 50 seriously injured people were treated in local hospitals, many of them rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris. Disaster management official Mohammed Irshad said the number of missing people could increase.
Weather officials forecast more heavy rains and floods in the area.
Chositi is a remote Himalayan village in Kashmir's Kishtwar district and the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route of an ongoing annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,500 feet) and about an 8-kilometer (5-mile) trek from the village.
Officials said the pilgrimage, which began July 25 and was scheduled to end on Sept. 5, was suspended.
The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen set up for the pilgrims, as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes. More than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen at the time of the flood, which also damaged or washed away many of the homes clustered together in the foothills, officials said.
Photos and videos on social media show extensive damage with household goods strewn next to damaged vehicles and homes in the village. Authorities made makeshift bridges Friday to help stranded pilgrims cross a muddy water channel.
Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in India's Himalayan regions, which are prone to flash floods and landslides. Cloudbursts have the potential to wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides, impacting thousands of people in the mountainous regions.
Experts say cloudbursts have increased in recent years partly because of climate change, while damage from the storms also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions.
Kishtwar district is home to multiple hydroelectric power projects, which experts have long warned pose a threat to the region's fragile ecosystem.
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