Until he heard screaming, Laxman Singh was standing at his TVS Apache RTR 180, waiting for pilgrims. As the Chishoti nullah breached its bank and swept everything in sight – from people and shops to the little wooden bridge that stood over it - Laxman Singh and his entourage of ‘Chishoti Bikers’ switched gears, going from looking for passengers to scouring for survivors. “As we heard the cloudburst, I and some fellow bikers sounded the alert and started guiding the panic-stricken pilgrims away from the nullah,” the 20-year-old now recalls. On the afternoon of August 14, a cloudburst at the Mata Machail yatra route in Kishtwar caused the death of at least 65 people. The flash floods, which came at a time of the ongoing Mata Machail yatra, is believed to have swept away several pilgrims and damaged several nearby homes. As search operations continue for the scores more missing, one group has emerged as one of the unsung heroes of the operation – the ‘Chishoti Bikers’. The group, made up of 150-160 local bikers, were originally making a living by taking passengers from Chishoti to Hamuri village – the last motorable point from where pilgrims undertake the 3-km terrain to reach Machail temple at a height of 2,880 metres. But as rescue progressed, they began to serve a greater purpose – initially becoming the first responders and eventually becoming an intrinsic part of the rescue operations. “After leading some pilgrims to safer places, we returned on our bikes to see the area covered in slush, boulders and uprooted trees,” Laxman says. Once the water receded, they began the rescue operations – using anything from the plates at the site to bike tools to help dig the site until expert rescuers from the Army, the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response, the Army, and the state police joined the operation 30-45 minutes later. In a post on X, Union Minister Jitendra Singh acknowledged their role in the operation. “No words enough to acknowledge their selfless service at the risk of their lives! No rewards enough to honour their brave presence of mind,” the post said. Belonging to the Chishoti village in Kishtwar district’s Paddar, the ‘Chishoti Bikers’ would usually offer their services during the annual Machail yatra, helping pilgrims navigate the hilly terrain and narrow track to Hamuri for a sum of Rs 100. At Chishoti, Laxman Singh talks about the people the bikers rescued – from the two pilgrims who were only found because their necks were visible in the slush to a young girl buried with two dead bodies and a woman who had been pulled out with her toddler daughter from the ruins of a homestay. While some bikers lost their own bikes to the flash flood, others had their own relatives wounded in the incident. Laxman’s aunt, a local apple vendor, was among those who sustained injuries in the crush that followed the cloudburst. “I picked her up and took her to a small government dispensary at Hamuri village, some 5 km away. I also took the two pilgrims to the dispensary,” he says. Fellow biker Deepak Parihar found a nine-month-old baby in the slush, adding that the bikers also helped fish out several bodies. “I also found a local from under a collapsed a residence-cum-hotel and took her to the Hamuri dispensary,” he says.
