Floods and landslides in Indian Kashmir kill 60, over 200 missing

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SRINAGAR (Reuters) -Rescuers in Indian Kashmir used shovels and earthmovers to search for survivors under boulders and debris on Friday, a day after sudden floods triggered by heavy rains killed at least 60 people and left 200 others missing.

Gushing mudslides and floodwaters inundated the village of Chasoti on Thursday, washing away pilgrims who had gathered for lunch before trekking up the hill for a popular religious site, in the second such disaster in the Himalayas in a little over a week.

“We heard a huge sound and it was followed by a flash flood and slush. People were shouting, and some of them fell in the Chenab River. Others were buried under the debris,” said Rakesh Sharma, a pilgrim who was injured.

Bags, clothes and other belongings, caked in mud, lay scattered amid broken electric poles and mud on Friday, as rescue workers used ropes and crossed makeshift bridges in an attempt to extricate people from the debris. 

At least 60 people were killed, more than 100 injured and another 200 still missing, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah told reporters on Friday.

The Himalayas are prone to floods and landslides, but some scientists say the intensity and frequency of these events are increasing due to climate change.

The Machail Yatra is a popular pilgrimage to the high-altitude Himalayan shrine of Machail Mata, one of the manifestations of the Goddess Durga. Pilgrims trek to the temple from Chasoti, where the road for vehicles ends. 

Thursday’s incident comes a little over a week after a similar flood and mudslide engulfed an entire village in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. 

“Nature has been testing us. In the last few days, we have had to deal with landslides, cloudbursts and other natural calamities,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the start of a nearly two-hour speech on the country’s 79th independence day.

A cloudburst, according to the Indian Meteorological Department, is a sudden, intense downpour of over 100 mm (4 inches) of rain in just one hour that can trigger sudden floods, landslides, and devastation, especially in mountainous regions during the monsoon.

In neighbouring Nepal, at least 41 people have died, 21 are missing and 121 injured in floods, heavy rains, landslides and hailstorms since early monsoon rains started in June this year, according to data provided by the country’s disaster management authority.

And more than 50 people were killed overnight in rain-related incidents across the mountainous north of Pakistan, rescue officials said on Friday. Flooding and the collapse of the roofs of houses caused the deaths.

In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where eight people were killed – including six members of a family buried in the debris of their home – evacuation operations were ongoing for stranded domestic tourists.

(Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari in Srinagar, Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu, Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar and Tariq Maqbool in Muzaffarabad. Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Michael Perry and Saad Sayeed)