Doctors at a Leh hospital are weary about the survival of many of the injured. They have been quoted by the Jammu and Kashmir government officials as saying that there are “lowest chances” of survival for about 80 of the 500 injured as they have lost vital limbs in the natural catastrophe that struck the 11,562-foot-high hillside town and its neighbourhood, during the intervening night of August 5 and 6.
Rescuers have not been able to relocate to Choglamsar, a village on Leh’s outskirts, which was wiped out in the cloudburst because of mudslides blocking the road. Mohammed Deen Khan, a social activist, told the authorities that he tried to reach the village on Saturday but failed as the mud which has overwhelmed the area was about 15-foot-high at some places on the route.
Scores of Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) soldiers are also missing from Leh itself and neighbouring areas, including Nubra. “The search for missing soldiers in Nubra valley is on but we are facing difficulty and, in fact, the search has been hampered because the slush is almost 28 feet,” an Army official said. He added that it was hard to say what their chances of survival are. Thirty-one jawans of the ITBP whose camp was also washed away in flash floods are missing too.
Meanwhile, four Jammu and Kashmir policemen, who were part of a massive rescue operation underway in the area, have been killed after they were trampled under the rubble of falling buildings or slipped down the steep and barren hills. They are sub-inspector Mohammad Ali, head constables Abu Hussain and Nissar Ahmed and constable Mohammad Hussain, all from neighbouring Kargil district. Their bodies were airlifted to Srinagar from Leh and later sent to their native places by road on Sunday.
Earlier, the corpses of 11 persons killed in cloudburst and flash floods along with one injured were flown to Udhampur Air Force station in IAF copters and subsequently dispatched to their respective native places in Doda, Kishtwar and Samba districts of the Jammu region, Pathankot in Punjab and Ganganagar (Rajasthan) by road.
Lt. Col. J.S. Brar, spokesperson of Army’s Northern Command, said that braving heavy odds the Armed forces, including 29 columns of the Army, continued relentless rescue and relief operations in this high altitude area for the third day on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Border Roads and Army engineers are trying to repair the bridges at Basgo, Nimmu, Phyang and Budhkharbu on the Leh-Kargil road. The landslides have blocked the 434-km Srinagar-Leh road at Kargil, Boodh Kharbu and Nimu and the Manali-Leh road at Patsio, Serchu and Pang.
A list of 76 foreign tourists stranded at Pang and eight foreign tourists at Darchiks is being forwarded to the concerned authorities. About 90 tourists are also believed to be stranded at Lamayaru. 110 tourists, half of them foreigners are being looked after at the Army’s transit camp on the Leh-Manali road, reports said.
Minister of state in Prime Minister’s office, Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday reviewed the rescue and relief measures at a high-level meeting held in Leh. Briefing the meeting, Leh’s chief executive councillor, Chering Dorje said that the communication system, road connectivity, irrigation canals, power and drinking water supply have been affected in all the areas hit by flash floods.