Landslide on Vaishno Devi route: Death toll climbs to 32 as rain wreaks havoc in Jammu

The death toll in the Vaishno Devi landslide has gone up to 32 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 officials said.

The incident occurred en route to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine when a massive landslide struck near Inderprastha Bhojnalaya at Ardhkuwari. Mud and boulders came crashing down the hillside around 3 pm, burying pilgrims under the debris. Several people were feared trapped, said the officials.

The landslide occurred at a point about halfway along the winding 12-km trek from Katra to the hilltop shrine. The yatra was suspended after the incident. Three relief columns of the Army’s White Knight Corps were mobilised for the rescue and relief operation in and around the shrine.

Relentless heavy rain led to havoc not just in Jammu, which saw flashfloods, landslides and the pilgrimage to the Vaishno Devi shrine being suspended, but also in Kashmir Valley. Infrastructure was severely damaged with bridges collapsing and mobile towers and electricity poles breaking like virtual twigs.

Telecom services collapsed in large parts of the union territory, leading to millions being cut off from communication and escalating problems, officials said.

Traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar and Kishtwar-Doda national highways was suspended and dozens of hill roads were blocked or damaged by landslides or flashfloods, they said. Many trains to and from Jammu were cancelled. —with PTI