A rush of pilgrims, and then, all swept away: Eyewitnesses recount Kishtwar flash flood horror

“This place was teeming with chanting pilgrims,” Singh, a 35-year-old from Chirala village in Doda’s Bhaderwah, says. “But within minutes, it was all swept away. When I looked back, all I could see was muck, boulders and uprooted trees in the 200-300 sq metre area.”

On Thursday afternoon, a cloudburst hit the Mata Machail yatra route in Kishtwar, killing at least 65 people, although the toll could climb higher. The flash floods, which came at a time of the ongoing Mata Machail yatra, is believed to have swept away several pilgrims and damaged several homes.

According to eyewitnesses, hundreds of people had gathered in the 300-metre area near Chishoti, where the flash floods occurred.

“A batch of pilgrims had just disembarked from their vehicles and were taking a break before travelling on. Several people were sitting at the langar (community kitchen) set up near the nullah, while others had gathered in the ground enjoying nature and waiting for transport. Some were standing on a wooden bridge over a nullah,” he says.

Indeed, the area bears evidence of the scale of the disaster. Piles of plates and utensils peek from under the boulders, sludge, and uprooted trees. Mud-caked vehicles and wrecked buildings dot the area, some damaged beyond recognition.

According to locals, several people who had parked their cars in the area and journeyed on had come back to retrieve them when the cloudburst occurred. Since the 10-km long road between Gulabgarh and Chishoti village in Paddar was narrow and had nullahs on the way, several pilgrims prefer to leave their vehicles here and take the local transport to Chishoti – the last motorable point to the temple.

“As a result, even those with vehicles could not drive away,” one local says.

A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) camp in the area was also swept away in the flash floods. The bodies of two personnel have been found, and searches are currently ongoing for others.

According to locals, the casualties could have been higher, but the boulders swept down by the flood prevented the water from entering Chishoti village.

This year, the annual Machail yatra began July 25 and will go on till September 5. With this yatra fast emerging as the third major pilgrimage in Jammu and Kashmir after Mata Vaishno Devi and Amarnath, the Kishtwar administration issued an advisory limiting the number of pilgrims to 8,000/day.

Of this, 6,000 had to be registered online, the advisory, issued on July 18, said, adding that remaining would be spot registrations done at Shri Gauri Shankar temple, Sarkoot, the Block Development Office of Gulabgarh and Chishoti.

However, details for online registration shows that as of August 15, only five pilgrims were registered online. According to sources, the long weekend from August 15-17 meant a swell in numbers, with Paddar seeing between 15,000 and 20,000 pilgrims on the day of the disaster.