An hour past midnight, a thunderstorm accompanied by high-velocity winds and rainfall brought life to a standstill and caused massive damage in Dharamkund village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ramban on Sunday.
Three people, including children, died as flash floods accompanied by landslides flattened more than two dozen houses. Several shops and vehicles were also swept away.
Many people were left stranded along the national highway. All institutions were shut in Ramban today.
The devastating calamity also caused extensive damage to standing crops and horticultural produce in several places in the Pir Panjal and Chenab Valley regions of Jammu division.
According to local authorities, the water level in a nearby nallah surged dramatically due to relentless rain, turning into a flash flood that swept through Dharamkund village near the Chenab bridge.A senior police officer said the highway was blocked at five locations, including Panthyal, Seri and Kishtwari Pathar, due to landslides and shooting stones, resulting in blockage of water supply.Brothers Aqib Ahmad (14) and Mohd Saqib (9), and their neighbour Mohan Singh (75) have been identified as the three people who lost their lives when a house collapsed at Seri Champa village, which lies on the outskirts of Ramban town.A local shopkeeper, Ravi Kumar, told the news agency ANI that his two shops were washed away in the flash floods overnight. He and others have requested special assistance from the governmentThe calamity has also resulted in a massive landslide at Pathar Naki along the Kishtwar-Paddar road that has cut off the connectivity to the Paddar subdivision and the district headquarters.An emergency control room had sounded an alert after the weather department warned of adverse conditions. Rescue teams in Ramban shifted nearly 500 people from low-lying areas to safer places, officials said.The landslides buried numerous vehicles along the national highway, as well as in Ramban town and its outskirts.Announcements were made from temples and mosques to alert people about the situation and asked them to contact designated officers in case of any emergency.Though rains stopped by Sunday afternoon, extensive damage has been caused to the electricity supply grid, resulting in an outage of power supply.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh expressed grief over the death of three people and loss of property. Ramban falls under his Udhampur-Kathua Lok Sabha constituency.
In a post on X, he hailed the “prompt action” of the district administration and reassured that, “every kind of relief, both financial and otherwise, is being provided’”.
