Death toll rises to 64 in Kishtwar cloudburst tragedy; Top officials oversee rescue

While the official death toll in the Kishtwar cloudburst incident reached 64 with the recovery of one more body, Principal Secretary, Home Department, Chandraker Bharti, on Tuesday visited Chashoti village to take stock of the ongoing rescue and relief operations.

Officials accompanying Bharti briefed him about the rescue efforts being jointly carried out by the Police, Army, NDRF, and other agencies. He interacted with the affected families and assured them that all possible support would be extended.

Authorities stated that the priority remains locating the missing individuals and providing urgent medical assistance and rehabilitation to the survivors.

On Monday, the Lieutenant Governor's administration deployed 10 senior IAS and IPS officers to supervise relief and rescue operations in the cloudburst-hit Chashoti village of Kishtwar district, where 63 people were earlier confirmed dead.

"In order to supervise relief and rescue operations in response to the recent tragic cloudburst, the officers, as per the roster, are hereby deputed to Chashoti in Kishtwar district," read an order issued by Commissioner-Secretary to the Government, M. Raju.

The officers will be stationed in the hamlet for the next eight days, with one IAS and one IPS officer overseeing operations for two days each.

Principal Secretary Home, Chandraker Bharti, and Inspector General of Police (Operations & Services), Uttam Chand, will supervise operations on August 19 and 20. They will be followed by Principal Secretary Anil Kumar Singh and IGP Sujit Kumar on August 21 and 22.

Financial Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary Shaleen Kabra, along with IGP Suleman Chaudhary, will oversee operations on August 23 and 24, followed by Secretary Shahid Iqbal Choudhary and IGP Vivek Gupta on August 25 and 26.

Body of a woman recovered

The body of a middle-aged woman was recovered in the cloudburst-hit Chashoti village, taking the official death toll to 64. The decomposed body was spotted downstream and subsequently retrieved by rescuers on Tuesday morning amid intensified search operations, following improved weather conditions.

The flash floods triggered by the cloudburst on August 14 devastated Chashoti—the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata temple. The victims include three CISF personnel and one Special Police Officer (SPO) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

The Army's Jammu-based White Knight Corps, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, said that five relief columns of the force are engaged in rescue and relief efforts. The operations have been further intensified with the deployment of additional medical teams.

The cloudburst left a trail of destruction—flattening a makeshift market, a langar site for the annual Machail Mata Yatra, damaging 16 houses and several government buildings, three temples, four water mills, a 30-metre-long bridge, and over a dozen vehicles.

Joint teams comprising the Police, Army, NDRF, SDRF, CISF, Border Roads Organisation (BRO), civil administration, and local volunteers are engaged in the ongoing rescue efforts.

The annual Machail Mata Yatra, which began on July 25 and was scheduled to conclude on September 5, remains suspended for the fifth consecutive day. The 8.5-kilometre trek to the shrine—located at an altitude of 9,500 feet—typically starts from Chashoti village, approximately 90 kilometres from Kishtwar town.

Authorities continue to monitor the weather and conduct round-the-clock rescue operations in the hope of locating any remaining survivors among the missing.