Kishtwar cloudburst toll rises, Janmashtami celebrations muted as rescue op drags

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO

J&K Leader of the Opposition Sunil Sharma said seven of the 34 bodies so far identified are Paddar residents, while 17 others have been sent to their families in various other places.

“Efforts are ongoing to identify the other bodies,” he said.

Meanwhile, authorities have deployed a fleet of 65 ambulances from the health department, NHPC, Army, CRPF and 108 Emergency Service of the J&K Health and Medical Education Department within the 10 km stretch between Machail temple and Chositi – where the cloudburst occurred.

“But the absence of a road there has slowed the operations,” one official said.

Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Sharma has ordered personnel to be deployed to clear the route in Paddar and rescue the stranded.

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has augmented health care facilities at the Atholi sub-district hospital and the Kishtwar district hospital. Official sources said that a specialised team of specialists and neurosurgeons have been sent to the Government Medical College and Hospital, Jammu, and 13 other doctors and 31 paramedics have been dispatched to the 30-bedded SDH in Atholi.

Doctors have also been sent to the district hospital at Kishtwar.

“The tertiary care institutions have also been put in a state of full readiness. Senior officers from the health and medical education department are stationed in Paddar to oversee rescue and medical operations,” one official said, over 200 units of blood have been made available at GMC, Jammu, for emergency.