News limps in after a two-day trek

News came for the first time today from Mohau-Mangae villages, 35 km west of Banihal. And it came on foot, after a two-day walk through 18-2...

News came for the first time today from Mohau-Mangae villages, 35 km west of Banihal. And it came on foot, after a two-day walk through 18-20 feet of snow. It was Mushtaq Ali Dar, a health officer posted at the villages, who along with two porters (whom he had paid Rs 1,000 each) brought a word from the areas completely cut off for the last 20 days.

The twin villages, which have more than 800 houses covered in snow — more than 250 destroyed — were also reached by the IAF after the sky cleared. Though aircraft still can’t land in the upper reaches, food packets are being dropped. Dar says the villages have 80 per cent women and children, since most of male members shift to Punjab in winter to earn a living.

There are other areas like Neel Valley, a 20-km trek from Banihal, Digdiol near Ramsu, villages like Wadhwan in Doda district, which are beyond the reach of the administration and even the Forces. Senior Army officers at Banihal say over 20 other villages around the area are still completely cut off.

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DIG, Doda-Udhampur Range, Satvir Gupta says the upper reaches of Doda are also inaccessible and there has been no news from villages like Wadhawan which do not have a police post. Official casualty figures in Doda district has touched 33 but the actual number is likely to be much higher, says Gupta. Most of the population in the cut-off areas are Gujjars and Bakerwals, though officials say their movement to the lower reaches in winter could have helped to reduce the damage.

Navappachi-Sondar sector in Doda, another three-day trek from the last motorable station at Kishtwar and where the death toll has hit 13, was also reached by iaF today.

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