Chisoti (J&K): The multi-agency operation to trace 33 people missing after the Kishtwar cloudburst entered its eighth day on Thursday, officials said.
The disaster struck on August 14 at Chisoti—the last motorable village on the route to the Machail Mata shrine—during the ongoing yatra, leaving 65 dead, including three CISF personnel and one J&K Police Special Police Officer (SPO). Over 100 others were injured.
“Search operations have been intensified at the worst-hit locations by separate teams,” a senior official told reporters, adding that efforts are concentrated near a community kitchen, areas where houses were swept away, and the Bhuat nallah in Gulabgarh-Paddar.
Joint teams of police, Army, NDRF, SDRF, CISF, BRO, civil administration, and local volunteers are engaged in the operation. A combined team of NDRF, SDRF, and police is also combing the 22-km stretch of the stream from Chisoti to Gulabgarh, after two bodies were recovered downstream in recent days.
Heavy-duty rescue vehicles, earth movers, and sniffer dogs have been deployed to clear debris and search for victims. Controlled explosions were carried out to break massive boulders obstructing the search. The NDRF’s 13th Battalion is working intensively along the riverbed to locate and retrieve the missing.
Officials said while the toll remains at 65, body parts of some victims have been recovered, with DNA identification underway. Senior IAS and IPS officers, deputed on the directions of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, are supervising the ground operation.
The cloudburst-triggered flash floods devastated the area, sweeping away a makeshift market and langar site for the yatra, damaging 16 houses, three temples, government buildings, four water mills, a 30-metre bridge, and over a dozen vehicles.
On Sunday, Army engineers constructed a Bailey bridge across the Chisoti nallah, restoring critical connectivity to the shrine. The Army has also deployed all-terrain vehicles to aid rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, the annual Machail Mata yatra, which began on July 25 and was scheduled to conclude on September 5, remains suspended for the seventh straight day. Authorities, however, will allow a group of devotees carrying the traditional Charri from Jammu to proceed to the shrine on August 21 or 22. The 8.5-km trek to the 9,500-foot-high temple begins at Chisoti, about 90 km from Kishtwar town.
