The rescue teams on Thursday intensified search and rescue operation in the cloudburst-hit Chesoti village of Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir to find over 30 missing persons.
The death toll in the natural calamity that struck the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata temple on August 14 during the yatra stands at 68. Over 100 people were injured.
Over 30 persons are still missing and there has been no trace of them since the cloudburst struk the village on August 14.
“The search operation by multiple agencies has been intensified to trace the missing persons. Operations are underway at the most affected sites by separate teams,” a senior official said.
The focus of the operation has been laid at three locations — the major impact site near a langar (community kitchen), the area where houses were washed away, and the Bhuat nallah in Gulabgarh-Paddar areas.
The teams of police, Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), CISF, Border Roads Organisation (BRO), civil administration, and local volunteers are engaged in the rescue efforts at these sites.
A team comprising NDRF, SDRF, and police personnel is conducting a search operation along the entire 22-km stretch of the stream from Chisoti to Gulabgarh, following the recovery of two bodies downstream over the past two days, the official said.
Specialised heavy-duty trucks have been deployed in the Chisoti to assist in rescue operations. Authorities are using such vehicles to ensure swift evacuation and provide relief in the affected areas.
The officials said while the death toll stands at 68, some body parts of the missing people have been recovered, and the DNA identification process has begun.
The flash floods triggered by the cloudburst left a trail of destruction, flattening a makeshift market and a langar site for the annual Machail Mata yatra, damaging 16 houses and government buildings, three temples, four water mills, a 30-metre-long bridge, besides over a dozen vehicles.
Army engineers on Sunday built a Bailey bridge over the Chisoti nullah, restoring much-needed connectivity to the village and the Machail Mata shrine.
The Army has also inducted a couple of all-terrain vehicles as part of efforts to intensify the rescue and relief operation.
The rescuers also carried out over half a dozen controlled explosions to blow up giant boulders hampering the search.