Cracks appeared on the ground in village Saddal in Udhampur district’s Pancheri block on Thursday, a day after the rains started on September 3. People didn’t take much notice. But then they could feel the ground underneath slowly slipping, and the frantic calls to officials at Pancheri and Udhampur started. “On Saturday noon, the earth started slipping faster, and people came out of their houses screaming,” says Surjeet Singh, the sarpanch of Galiote panchayat. From outside his house on the hill next door, he saw all of Saddal and nearly 40 people vanish under a landslide. It took barely two-three minutes. Again, frantic calls went out to the Udhampur district administration for help, but no one came. Some of the villagers then trekked to Pancheri, nearly 10 km away, reaching in the evening, and told the local police about what had happened. Police, in turn, informed their seniors at Udhampur, who sent an SHO with a police party to Saddal. Till night though, no help had reached. The next morning, around 10.30 am, a call came to Radio Kashmir Jammu’s Jeevan Rekha, a programme that has been helping provide aid to flood victims. The caller was a government employee. Clarifying that he didn’t wish to be identified, he said he wanted to draw the Udhampur Deputy Commissioner’s attention towards villagers buried under landslides. The person hosting the programme told him that the Deputy Commissioner too was listening in, and that a helicopter would be sent within 10 minutes. Till afternoon though, there was no response. The government employee then made a second phone call to the radio station. Within 15 minutes, a helicopter arrived. However, the copter could not locate Saddal at first and returned. The police party from Pancheri that had finally reached then burnt wood to create smoke and attract the pilot. However, he still could not find a place to land. The team of police personnel and NDRF members in the helicopter were finally able to land in Saddal only on their second sortie. By that time, it was more than 24 hours since the village had gone under. MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia has sought an inquiry into the whereabouts of Deputy Commissioner Yasha Mudgal, who has been accused of not being present in Udhampur and not reacting on time. Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Shantmanu, said he had sought a report. Bodies of less than half of the 40 feared dead have so far been recovered.
