Kashmir: State's claims washed away as hundreds are left stranded by floods

Srinagar: After three days of incessant rains, the residents of Akran village in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district failed to get any response to their calls for help from the district administration and instead called the Indian Army to save them from the flood waters.

A column of Army’s local unit based in Devsar arrived minutes after the village was submerged. The soldiers spread a web of ropes towards a rivulet, where 25 members of a nomad Gujjar family had been camping and were trapped. After evacuating them they proceeded towards the village.

In this manner the army, later joined by local police personnel, worked through the night to evacuate residents of more than 35 villages in south Kashmir that were worst hit by flash floods over the last three days.

Boats used for rafting in Pahalgum, a tourist destination nearly 40 kilometers from Kulgam, also arrived in time to rescue a group of trapped people, which included 26 children.

The MLA of Kulgam, Abdul Gaffal Sofi, said the state government failed to reach the worst affected areas in rural Kashmir, as the Omar Abdullah government was focused only on cities.

“There are hundreds of villagers in Kulgam who will die as there are no boats to take them to safer places,” Sofi told Firstpost.

In the neighboring district of Pulwama, in south Kashmir, residents of over 30 villages left their homes for safer ground.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who visited some affected areas said all necessary measures would be taken to safeguard lives of people in the flood-hit areas. He called for an “energetic, extensive and the most effective rescue plan for saving human lives.”

The Jammu and Kashmir government sounded an alert for floods as the death toll rose to 12.

However, Kashmir is largely waterlogged. Srinagar city wears a deserted look and road connectivity to south Kashmir has been affected. Many areas in Srinagar city are filled with water and residents have been using anything they could lay their hands on to remove water from their homes.

Four people were killed late on Wednesday, two were washed away in flash floods in the Poonch district of Jammu region, while two died in landslides triggered by flash floods in the Budgam area of South Kashmir.

One Border Security Force officer and five others were killed in landslides and flash floods triggered by heavy rain in the Jammu region.

“There will be no relief till Saturday as more rainfall is expected in state. We are expecting a decrease in precipitation after Saturday evening,” Sonam Lotus, Director of the Srinagar met office told Firstpost.

Last year the state government constructed a fresh embankment for the Doodh Ganga river to let the water flow into the flood channel. But as the water level rose late on Wednesday, no one could pull it up as it lacked adequate grease. The flood waters flowed into Srinagar city’s Bone and Joint Hospital in the Barzalla area and patients had to be shifted to second floor.

It was no natural calamity, but most people weren’t particularly impressed with the response of the state and its policy makers so far.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) vice-chairman Shashidhar Reddy, while on a visit to Kashmir last year, said that central government had asked the states to prepare a State Disaster Management Plan to meet with eventualities of a natural disaster.

“Jammu and Kashmir is one of the states which is yet to prepare a State Disaster Management Plan. There is a need for a plan at district levels that will help in mobilising resources in case of a natural disaster,” he had said.

The government of Jammu and Kashmir is yet to frame an effective system to respond to the natural and manmade calamities despite the state government approving a three-tier Disaster Management Policy in February 2012.

The proposal to establish an effective autonomous body post the devastating earthquake in 2005 has remained confined to paper. Presently district level committees are in place but without proper structure or planning.

For the moment a flood alert has been sounded in Srinagar city and all emergency services have been pressed into service to meet the eventuality of a flood, Farooq Ahmad Shah, Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar, said.

He added that the level of the Jhelum river at Ram Munshi Bagh in Srinagar was currently at 22 feet, four feet above the danger mark.

“I am praying to God that no more people die because of this natural calamity and rains stop, so that relief and rehabilitation work could be stepped up,” Shah said.

But what about the rural areas of Kashmir where state authorities are still to reach, and where there is no official even to pray for the hundreds trapped?