Floods and Landslides in Indian Kashmir Kill 60, Leave Over 100 Missing
Gushing mudslides and floodwaters inundated the village of Chasoti in Indian Kashmir on Thursday, washing away pilgrims who had gathered for lunch before trekking up the hill for a popular pilgrimage site.
"We heard a huge sound and it was followed by a flash flood and slush. People were shouting, and some of them fell in the Chenab River. Others were buried under the debris," said Rakesh Sharma, a pilgrim who was injured.
Bags, clothes and other belongings, caked in mud, lay scattered amid broken electric poles and mud on Friday, as rescue workers used shovels, ropes and crossed makeshift bridges in an attempt to extricate people out of the debris.
"We were told that another 100-150 people might be buried under the debris," one rescue worker told news agency ANI.
The Machail Yatra is a popular pilgrimage to the high altitude Himalayan shrine of Machail Mata, one of the manifestations of Goddess Durga, and pilgrims trek to the temple from Chasoti, where the road for vehicles ends.
Thursday's incident comes a little over a week after a flood and mudslide engulfed an entire village in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
"Nature has been testing us. In the last few days, we have had to deal with landslides, cloudbursts and other natural calamities," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the start of a nearly two-hour speech on the country's 79th independence day.
A cloudburst, according to the Indian Meteorological Department, is a sudden, intense downpour of over 100 mm (4 inches) of rain in just one hour that can trigger sudden floods, landslides, and devastation, especially in mountainous regions during the monsoon.
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MTV Lebanon
a day ago
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Floods and Landslides in Indian Kashmir Kill 60, Leave Over 100 Missing
At least 60 people have died and more than 100 are missing, a day after sudden, heavy rain caused floods and landslides in Indian Kashmir, authorities and local media said on Friday, the second such disaster in the Himalayas in a little over a week. Gushing mudslides and floodwaters inundated the village of Chasoti in Indian Kashmir on Thursday, washing away pilgrims who had gathered for lunch before trekking up the hill for a popular pilgrimage site. "We heard a huge sound and it was followed by a flash flood and slush. People were shouting, and some of them fell in the Chenab River. Others were buried under the debris," said Rakesh Sharma, a pilgrim who was injured. Bags, clothes and other belongings, caked in mud, lay scattered amid broken electric poles and mud on Friday, as rescue workers used shovels, ropes and crossed makeshift bridges in an attempt to extricate people out of the debris. "We were told that another 100-150 people might be buried under the debris," one rescue worker told news agency ANI. The Machail Yatra is a popular pilgrimage to the high altitude Himalayan shrine of Machail Mata, one of the manifestations of Goddess Durga, and pilgrims trek to the temple from Chasoti, where the road for vehicles ends. Thursday's incident comes a little over a week after a flood and mudslide engulfed an entire village in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. "Nature has been testing us. In the last few days, we have had to deal with landslides, cloudbursts and other natural calamities," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the start of a nearly two-hour speech on the country's 79th independence day. A cloudburst, according to the Indian Meteorological Department, is a sudden, intense downpour of over 100 mm (4 inches) of rain in just one hour that can trigger sudden floods, landslides, and devastation, especially in mountainous regions during the monsoon.
Nahar Net
2 days ago
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Death toll in Kashmir flash floods rises to at least 32
by Naharnet Newsdesk 14 August 2025, 16:24 At least 32 people are dead in flash floods caused by torrential rains in a remote, mountainous village in Indian-controlled Kashmir, a top disaster management official said Thursday, as rescue teams scouring the devastated Himalayan village brought at least 100 people to safety. Mohammed Irshad said rescue teams scouring the devastated Himalayan village of Chositi brought at least 100 people to safety. He said initial estimations suggested at least 50 others were still missing. India's deputy minister for science and technology, Jitendra Singh, said the floods were triggered by a cloudburst in Jammu and Kashmir's Chositi area and "could result in substantial casualty." Some of the rescued people were badly injured and were being treated in local hospitals, said Susheel Kumar Sharma, a local official. Chositi is a remote Himalayan village in Kashmir's Kishtwar district and is the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route of an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine. Multiple pilgrims were also feared to be affected by the disaster. Officials said pilgrimage has been suspended and more rescue teams were on the way to the area. The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen set up for the pilgrims as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes, officials said Lt. Gov. Manoj Sinha, New Delhi's top administrator in Kashmir, offered condolences for the loss of life and said he had directed personnel from India's military and paramilitary forces, as well as police and disaster management officials, to strengthen rescue and relief operations. 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 due to climate change, while damage from the storms also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions.
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Indian helicopters rescue people stranded by flooding in Himalayan state
Indian rescuers used helicopters on Thursday to pluck to safety people stranded by flood waters in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, nearly two days after a sudden inundation and landslides killed four, with dozens still missing. Roads crumpled or blocked by boulders kept rescue teams from reaching the village of Dharali in the state's district of Uttarkashi, a tourist spot, after a wall of water hit the area, submerging homes and cars in sludge. The helicopter rescuers were given instructions needed to ensure the operation was effective, the state's chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said. "The heli-rescue operation ... started in the affected areas this morning," he added in a post on X. Army rescuers used their hands, as well as machinery, to shift boulders from roads turned into muddy, gushing rivers, in visuals from the region. About 200 people had been rescued over Tuesday and Wednesday, army and state officials said, but many more were feared stranded and missing. Dharali, a hamlet of about 200 people that stands more than 1,150 m (3,775 ft) above sea level, is a pit-stop for Hindu pilgrims climbing to the temple town of Gangotri. "We saw Dharali falling before our eyes," said Anamika Mehra, a pilgrim headed for Gangotri when the flooding hit. "We were very scared, but the locals helped us and the army reached the next day to rescue us," she told news agency ANI. Uttarakhand is prone to floods and landslides, which some experts blame on climate change.
