Cloudburst in Amarnath: A heavy cloudburst near the holy Amarnath cave shrine has left the yatra stranded after the heavy flood water rushed into the base camp of the Amarnath flooding out all the tents and kitchens where the langar and food supply system was thoroughly going on.
According to the reports and officials, around 16 deaths have been accounted for while 40 people are still missing owing to rubble and mud that stocked due to the flash floods from the hilly areas into the valley.
Due to this, the Yatra has been stopped until further information and will only be resumed after the rescue operation will get completed.
The tragedy occurred at around 5:30 pm on Friday near the cave when the pilgrims were heading towards the holy shrine but plenty of water slid down the valley to make things worse.
A rescue operation by the team of the National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) has been commenced and the injured people are transferred to the temporary hospitals in Sonmarg and various other places in West Kashmir.
Around 15,000 pilgrims struck at the area of impact and the NDRF, SDRF, and the BSF are rescuing them to the safe lower regions.
To help the families of those affected, an integrated command centre has been put under Divisional Commissioner and various helpline numbers have been set up in Srinagar, and New Delhi.
The NDRF director Atul Karwal said that the security forces claimed that 16 people have lost their lives while the security officials are searching for missing people under the rock and mud debris over the tent areas.
President of India, Ram Nath Kovind was disheartened after the sudden tragedy at the pilgrimage area and took to Twitter to express his emotions, “Very distressed with the Amarnath tragedy and the deepest condolences to the people who lost their lives. Wishing for speedy rescue and praying for yatra to be resumed as soon as possible.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too expressed his deep thoughts over the tragedy and said, “very sad to hear about what happened at Shri Amarnath Yatra, my thoughts and prayers with the bereaved families. Rescue operations are going in full swing and all the assistance will be provided.”
Officials are said to have already warned the locals to remove the tents and community kitchens as they were located in the area of water flow which could bring such a tragedy anytime but no action was taken.
