Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Mar 12: At least seven people were killed and two dozen others were injured in avalanches and house collapse, triggered by heavy snowfall in Kashmir, while major parts of Kashmir valley were plunged into darkness and were water logged since Monday.
Jammu and Kashmir State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) on the basis of information provided by Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) today issued fresh Medium Danger avalanche warning for hilly areas of Uri, Tangdhar, Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch, Rajouri, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam, Budgam, Ganderbal, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora and Kargil.
“People living in these snowbound areas have been requested to take precautions and not to venture on steep slopes. The warning is valid for the next 24 hours”, a statement issued by SDMA said.
Police said seven persons died while 9 others were injured in house collapse and avalanches across Kashmir division today. However, sources said that around 30 people have been injured.
Police said that three persons died while 8 other were injured when an avalanche hit some houses in Balsern Dragdun in Damhal Hanjipora area of South Kashmir district of Kulgam. Police said that they along with civil administration shifted all the eight injured persons to the hospital for treatment. They have been identified as Rashid Gorsi, 24, Talib Gorsi, 12 and Altaf Gorsi, 14.
Police said that during the intervening night of March 11and 12, two Army men of 82 field regiment Batra Camp, in Drass, Kargil – Nayak Vijay Prasad and Darminder Singh – came under the Avalanche at their camp. “Bodies of both the Jawans have been recovered”, police added.
Police said that one Rehti, 40, wife of Abdul Rashid Lone of Manigam, Qazigund in South Kashmir district Kulgam died when her tin-shed collapsed. “Fazi Begum mother of Bashir Ahmad died when their house collapsed at Kansu, Shopian. The other family members were rescued”, police added.
Police said that one Gulzar Ahmad Bhat son of Abdul Aziz resident of Alamdar Colony Char-e-Sharief was injured near his house in Budgam area.
Police said that they along with civil administration rescued about 80 persons including 48 members of 10 families of Waltangoo Naar in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district after heavy snowfall at various places in the Valley.
“In a rescue operation, Police and civil administration has shifted 48 members of about 10 families from Waltangoo Naar to Vasik Nag area falling under the Police Post Kund. These 48 persons including children, women and old have been shifted to safer place in view of the heavy snowfall”, Police said.
Police said that in another rescue operation by Qazigund Police six families comprising 24 members were shifted from Meerasi Nallah to the safer place in district Kulgam today.
Police said that two families of Iqbal and Qasim Gujjar of Muspora Keller consisting 5 members each were rescued from Muspora by Shopian Police along with 10 cattles. “The families were shifted to the houses of Sarpanchs of Moshwara and Mastpora. One more family of Yousuf Ganie from Dublipora Wachi was rescued and shifted to another house in the village”, police said.
Police said that Pulwama police provided Food and other required items to 150 patients and attendants who had got stuck at District hospital Pulwama.
Srinagar based Defence spokesman, Lt Col N N Joshi said here that due to two days of continuous snow, an avalanche hit the remote areas of Balsaran in district Kulgam during the early hours today. A large number of persons and their cattles were trapped in the avalanche as their houses got buried under the snow.
“On receipt of the information regarding avalanche, a rescue team of an RR Unit was immediately rushed to the spot. The team braving the inclement weather and snow conditions reached the spot with great difficulty. After a lot of physical and mental effort, the team managed to extricate and saved precious lives of 7 civilians. However before the team could reach, 3 persons had already died. Besides at least 2 dozen livestock who are missing, presumably buried under the snow, many houses were also damaged”, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that in two separate incidents, rescue teams of army subunits located at Imamsahib and Hathipura in general area Behibagh of district Shopian, evacuated two pregnant ladies on stretchers by walking incessantly for approximately three hours. “One of the pregnant woman delivered a healthy child”, he added.
The Chief Engineer Power Development Department (PDD), Bashir Ahmad Khan, told Excelsior that the department has restored power to majority of the Srinagar city by this evening while power has been restored in around 60-70 percent areas of the Valley. He said that the department is providing 700 Mega Watts of power against 1200 MWs. “There has been damage to 220 KV Kishpora-Pampore transmission line near Qazigund but we will manage without it”, he added.
Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, in the meantime, remained closed for traffic for the second consecutive day today due to heavy snowfall and landslides triggered by heavy rains.
Inspector General of Police, Traffic, Muneer Ahmad Khan told Excelsior that around 14 slides have hit National Highway between Ramban and Ramsu. He said that this includes two major slides that have blocked the highway at Panthal and Battery Chashma.
Khan said that a major avalanche last night hit the North portal of Jawahar Tunnel between glass house and tunnel. He said that BRO are working on the clearance of snow avalanche and slides from the highway.
The IGP said that there will be no fresh traffic on the highway tomorrow and only stranded vehicles will be cleared once the highway is restored tomorrow. He said that today Jammu bound vehicles were cleared from Ramban. “The traffic will ply from Jammu to Srinagar on March 14”, he added.
The Air traffic that remained disrupted yesterday was also restored this afternoon after the Border Roads Organization cleared snow from the Airport this morning.
A spokesman of the Project BEACON of the BRO said here that BRO pressed machines into service on the runway throughout night of March 10 and 11 so that snow does not accumulate on it. “The snowfall stopped this morning and we made extensive efforts by putting into service snow cutters, snow sweepers, snow ploughs and other earthmoving machines to clear the accumulated snow from the apron and taxiway so that flights could land at the earliest. The flights started landing at Srinagar Airport by 2 p.m.”, the spokesman added.
The passengers, however, said that airport was water logged and there were very few Taxis ferrying passengers. They alleged that the Airport Authority was caught napping and the passengers faced hardships.
The telecommunication services that were badly hit by snowfall since last evening were restored this morning.
A spokesman of the BSNL said here that unprecedented snowfall and incessant rains played havoc with the telecommunication services in the State, particularly in Kashmir valley and hilly areas of Jammu region.
The spokesman said that many important transmission routes in the State were adversely affected causing disruption in the telecom services. “Due to heavy snowfall and lightening the transmission systems carrying long distance traffic were affected”, the spokesman added.
The spokesman said that the Optical Fibre Cable between Ramban and Batote was reported faulty at 10:56 pm. yesterday. “It was restored at 8:35 am today”, he added.
“Even Microwave connectivity between Udhampur-Srinagar was disrupted due to lightning at 9 pm. yesterday and was restored at 7:30 am. This resulted in total disruption in connectivity between Kashmir valley and outside world between 10:56 p.m. yesterday and 7:30 am. today”, the spokesman added.
The spokesman said that around 30 per cent of Mobile towers in Kashmir valley and hilly regions of Jammu region are affected.
The Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Shalendra Kumar, said that keeping in view the situation created by snowfall in the valley, all schools and colleges across Kashmir will remain closed till March 16.
The Director, School Education, Kashmir, Tariq Ali Mir, said that all the schools from Primary to Higher Secondary level (both Government and recognized Private schools) shall remain closed till March 15 in view of heavy snowfall in Kashmir valley. “Violation in this regard shall be viewed seriously”, he added.
Hundreds of houses also suffered damaged due to the heavy snowfall across Kashmir since Monday. The administration is estimating the damage caused by the snowfall to houses and orchards.
In Srinagar, roof and parapet wall of Bagwan Gopi Nath Ashram at Khayar Habba Kadal in old city area was damaged due to snowfall. The Ashram was recently renovated.
The heavy snowfall led to water logging of most parts of Srinagar city. The roads in Jawahar Nagar, Tulshibagh, Rajbagh, Gogjibagh, Batmaloo, Lal Chowk, Residency road, Bemina, Qamarwari, Peer Bagh, Hyderpora, old city and several other localities were waterlogged causing problems for the movement of pedestrians and traffic. At majority of these places the roads were under around one to two feet of water.
The life in Kashmir was out of gear due to water logging. Shops and offices were shut and traffic on the roads was skeletal. Majority of the people preferred to stay indoors as roads were submerged in water.
The Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Shalindra Kumar, said that the priority of the Government is to restore electricity and de-watering of Srinagar city. He said that the de-watering of the city is going on and it will be completed by tomorrow afternoon.
Kumar said that the district, sub-district and majority of the Tehsil roads were restored and efforts to re-open the National Highway is going on.
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