Jammu: The death toll in the Vaishno Devi landslide has gone up to 34 with rescuers pulling out more bodies from under the debris, officials said on Wednesday, a day after disaster struck the route to the hilltop shrine in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district.
At least 20 people were injured in the landslide triggered by heavy, relentless rain and are undergoing treatment in different hospitals, officials said.
With fears that more people could be trapped, rescue teams are continuing to dig through the mounds of rubble to look for survivors. While 30 bodies were recovered from the debris, two of those injured died in hospital.
The pilgrimage to the shrine was suspended when the mountainside literally gave way and stones, boulders and rocks came hurtling down around 3 pm on Tuesday, catching people unawares.
The landslide struck near the Inderprastha Bhojnalaya at Adhkwari, about halfway along the winding 12-km trek from Katra to the shrine.
There are two routes up to the shrine — while the yatra had been suspended on the Himkoti trek route since morning on Tuesday, it was going on on the old route till afternoon when authorities decided to suspend it as a precautionary measure.
Unrelenting, torrential rain for days together has created havoc in Jammu region.
Desperate search for loved ones
In Katra, the base camp, hospitals and help desks are hubs of growing uncertainty as families run between them, holding on to the hope that their missing ones are among the survivors.
The disaster befell the busy Adhkuwari trail, a halfway point along the pilgrimage walk, where a crowded rest stop was destroyed by a torrent of rocks and debris.
For Shubam Sahu, nature’s fury is for real as he and his 11-member team from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, were walking back from the shrine when the ground collapsed. Three members of his team are missing now.
“There are some people who are still unidentified,” he said with a heavy voice. “That was the reason we came here,” he told PTI Videos outside the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Katra.
Adhkuwari, a point about halfway along the winding 12-km trek to the hilltop shrine, has always been packed with devotees who used to take rest or enjoy meals at Indraprastha Bhojnalaya while going to the shrine or returning to the base camp – Katra.
There are two routes to the shrine — while the yatra had been suspended on the Himkoti trek route since Tuesday morning, it was going on through the old route till 1.30 pm when authorities decided to suspend it till further orders in view of the torrential rains.
The scenes of distress are mirrored across the town. Subash from Punjab is searching for four members of his group who simply vanished after the landslide.
“Maybe they have taken shelter somewhere, but they should have returned by now,” he said, unable to shake the grim possibility that something more sinister has happened.
Omar raps up Vaisho Devi temple authorities
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned the decision of the Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, under the control of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, to allow the pilgrimage to continue despite warnings of heavy downpour.
Speaking to reporters, Abdullah criticised the apathetic approach of the authorities. “We will have to talk about it later. When we knew about the weather, should we not have taken certain steps to save those lives?” he asked. “The weather warning had come to us a few days ago.”
“Why were these people on the track? Why were they not stopped? Why were they not moved to a safe place?” Abdullah asked. “This has to be discussed later. We feel sorrow over the loss of 29 to 30 precious lives.”
(This copy has been updated with latest death toll, quotes from survivors and J&K chief minister)
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