Five people died and 14 people were injured when a landslide hit the highway to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine on the Trikuta hills on Tuesday afternoon while heavy rain was falling across the region.
According to officials, the yatra, or pilgrimage, to the Mata Vaishno shrine in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district has been suspended. Rescue operations are taking place at the point near the Inderprastha Bhojnalaya at Ardhkuwari where the landslide occurred at around 3 pm, which is almost halfway on the entire trek to the hilltop shrine.
Earlier in the day, the yatra on the Himkoti trek route had been suspended in the morning. Pilgrims were able to utilize the old route (the Himkoti trek route) until around 1:30 pm. At that time authorities suspended the old route and yatra also because of torrential rain. Many places in Jammu and Kashmir have been devastated by three consecutive days of heavy rainfall.
Four people were killed due to a cloudburst in Doda district earlier today, which brings the death toll in the last 24 hours to 9. The cloudburst resulted in heavy downpours which triggered flash floods along the way, damaging over 10 houses in the region.
Regional connectivity faced disruption after damage to optical fibre cables at various locations during the heavy doud burst. In response, the Northern Railway cancelled 18 trains to and from Katra, Udhampur and Jammu railway stations, respectively.
River flow data indicated that almost all major rivers and streams are flowing above danger mark and are submerging low lying tunnels and roads in Hindu popular zones. Local authorities have requested people to stay away from hill slopes and water bodies.
In Pahalgam’s Betaab Valley, the Sheshnag Nallah breached its previous highest point of 5.68 feet, reaching 6.02 feet. The flood alarm for the stream is at 4.59 feet, while the flood danger mark is 5.09 feet.
Officials warned that the level of the Jhelum river could rise until Tuesday evening due to the persistent rain showers. They indicated that given the recent increase in water level the rate of increase in the Sheshnag Nallah indicates a little cloudburst or significantly heavy downpours in the upper reaches.
Also, this morning the 250-km-long Jammu–Srinagar National Highway was closed as a precautionary measure following landslides and shooting stones from hillocks at Chanderkote, Kela Morh, and Battery Cheshma in Ramban district. According to officials, vehicular movement on the highway, the only all-weather road connecting Kashmir to the rest of the country, was stopped at Udhampur in Jammu and Qazigund in Kashmir.
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