Cloudburst in J&K’s Doda district cuts off road links, damages cars

While there was no loss of life or injury, the road link to Phagsoo tehsil from the Thathri sub-division headquarters was snapped as a portion of the road got buried under huge boulders.

Vehicles stuck on a damaged road after a cloudburst at Gunti forest uphill of Thathri Town in Doda district, Saturday, July 9, 2022. (PTI Photo)

Many link roads and vehicles parked on the roadside were damaged in the wee hours of Saturday after a cloudburst incident in Jammu and Kashmir’s hilly Doda district.

While there was no loss of life or injury, the road link to Phagsoo tehsil from the Thathri sub-division headquarters was snapped as a portion of the road got buried under huge boulders. A number of vehicles parked on the roadside near the Army camp in Thathri town were buried under mud which also entered the Army camp and many nearby houses, causing panic among the people.

Landslides and rock-slips after a cloudburst at Gunti forest uphill of Thathri Town in Doda district, Saturday, July 9, 2022. (PTI Photo)

Sources said that efforts to clear the area of muck and boulders were in progress even in the evening.

Incidentally, a cloudburst had hit Thathri town on the same day in 2017 in which six people had died and many residential houses and a school building were damaged.

The Union Territory administration in Ramban and Rajouri districts have sounded alert asking people not to go near the streams and nullahs in view of a rise in the water level following the rains.

Also Read | Amarnath cloudburst: Toll rises to 16; yatra temporarily suspended

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir administration Friday set up a helpline for the Amarnath Yatra, which has been suspended after at least 16 people died after a flash flood triggered by a cloudburst in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.

The victims were camping near the Amarnath cave shrine, when the cloudburst occurred around 6 pm Friday. The flash flood washed away a part of the camp. At least 15,000 pilgrims, who were stranded near the Amarnath holy cave, have been shifted to the lower base camp of Panjtarni, and “no yatri is left on the track”, an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) spokesperson was quoted by news agency PTI as saying. Rescue operations are underway.

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