Relentless August rains battered Jammu and Kashmir, with cloudbursts, landslides and swelling rivers destroying homes, claiming 110 lives and reviving 2014 flood memories, exposing fragile infrastructure and the region’s shaky disaster preparedness, reports Syed Shadab Ali Gillani
On August 27, as midnight approached, Srinagar’s Hari Singh High Street (HSHS) carried an unusual stillness. Traders, families, and natives moved restlessly, glancing towards the Jhelum. A silent apprehension replaced the festive air. In Goni Khan Market, Kashmir’s most popular women-exclusive bazaar, the seepage of water from the embankments was cause enough for alarm.
“We are not against development, but the government should have filled the breaches first,” one angry shopkeeper said, pointing towards the waterlogging creeping into his store. “The smart city is welcome, but is it really smart? The seepage is unable to move out, and the market could be inundated.”
Upstream, embankments had already breached at several spots. Officials rushed to plug them, conscious of the memories they carried. For many in Srinagar, the shadow of September 2014 still hovers. The deluge then had left much of the city submerged for days, homes devastated, and livelihoods destroyed. As gauges climbed this August, people whispered the same question: was 2014 returning?
This time, relief came late but sure. By the time the crowds had swelled on HSHS, officials announced that levels were beginning to recede. The city had been spared, though barely.
Beyond Srinagar, however, the rains wreaked havoc. Anantnag witnessed devastating cloudbursts in the Lidder and Aripath tributaries. Flash floods surged into homes, drowning livestock and damaging fields. Four people died, two electrocuted in waterlogged houses and two crushed under a collapsing market wall. In Pahalgam, popular tourist properties were washed through, while wooden bridges snapped and vanished.
A Bit Less Than Flood
A senior Irrigation and Flood Control engineer explained the precarious balance. “This downpour brought down 35,000 cusecs of water, of which 5,000 cusecs were absorbed by the Flood Spill Channel (FSL),” he said, requesting anonymity. “Right now, we can manage nearly 40,000 cusecs, but once Phase II of the flood management project concludes, we may be able to handle 60,000.” But he also acknowledged what many know: the 2014 flood was different. Then, more than 100,000 cusecs came crashing down, far beyond the system’s ability to manage.
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Despite reassurances, policy failures weighed heavily. A Right to Information (RTI) query revealed that no dredging has been carried out on the Jhelum or its flood spill channels since March 2020. The Comprehensive Flood Management Plan (CFMP), launched in 2015 under the Prime Minister’s Development Package, stands only 80 per cent complete after a decade. Out of 31 projects under Phase I worth Rs 399 crore, 15 are still incomplete.
Although Phase I marginally improved the river’s carrying capacity, from 31,800 cusecs at Sangam in 2014 to 41,000 now, the more ambitious Phase II remains stuck. Engineers blame administrative delays, while activists point to encroachments. The RTI disclosed that 632,924 trees, 1,884 permanent or semi-permanent structures, and 283 boundary walls remain on the riverbanks across Srinagar, Anantnag, Bandipora, Baramulla, and Pulwama.
As a senior Srinagar Municipal Corporation official admitted, “No locality in Srinagar was hit by Jhelum directly. But when even a day’s rain leaves the city waterlogged, how long can we live on luck?”
Tragedy on the Pilgrim Trails
If Kashmir hovered on the edge of disaster, Jammu fell deep into it. August brought not one but a series of calamities: incessant downpours, cloudbursts, and landslides. The region recorded some of its heaviest rainfall in over a century. Jammu city itself logged 380 mm in a single day, the highest since 1910.
The worst tragedy struck Kishtwar on August 14. A cloudburst over Chashoti slammed into the Machail Mata Yatra route. Hundreds of pilgrims were at lunch when torrents of water, boulders, and mud roared down the valley. A langar site vanished. Tents collapsed. A CISF camp was buried. By the end of the week, 65 corpses had been pulled from the debris. More than 35 people remain untraceable.
Twelve days later, another calamity unfolded. On August 26, around 3 pm, a landslide near Inderprastha Bhojnalaya at Ardhkuwari, along the Vaishno Devi route, swept down rocks and mud within seconds. Thousands of devotees were caught midway along the 12-km trek from Katra. Thirty-four people died on the spot. At least 19 others were injured, including a child in critical condition.
MP Jugal Kishore confirmed that 15 injured pilgrims were admitted to Narayana Hospital and others to Katra Hospital. The victims included residents of Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Their bodies were airlifted after post-mortems at GMC Jammu.
Elsewhere, rivers turned into torrents. The Tawi touched 25 feet, breaching its danger mark, while the Chenab stayed above red lines for 27 hours. The Ravi broke through Kathua’s villages, and the Ujh cut across Samba’s hamlets. The collapse of the fourth Tawi Bridge left Jammu city divided. In Ramban and Udhampur, swollen rivers flooded villages, while landslides paralysed the Srinagar–Jammu highway at multiple spots. The landslips and the massive water discharge took away OFC between Srinagar and Jammu and pushing Kashmir into a nearly 24-hour internet and phone outage.
In Doda’s Bhalessa region, a cloudburst washed away ten homes and killed four, including three women. Power and communication lines snapped across districts. For nearly 24 hours, mobile networks collapsed after optical fibres were damaged, reviving memories of 2019’s long shutdown.
The statistics of devastation were grim. In just over two weeks, Jammu and Kashmir lost more than 110 lives to weather fury. Over 35 remain missing.
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Relief, Anger
As the scale of tragedy unfolded, relief announcements came quickly. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced Rs 6 lakh compensation for families of the deceased, Rs 4 lakh from the State Disaster Response Fund and Rs 2 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Injured persons were promised Rs 1 lakh (serious) and Rs 50,000 (minor). Each Deputy Commissioner was given Rs 10 crore in advance to ensure immediate relief.
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha separately announced Rs 5 lakh for victims in Kishtwar and Rs 9 lakh for the Reasi landslide victims. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief and assured full central assistance.
But criticism flared just as quickly. Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Chowdhary blamed LG Sinha, as chairman of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, for failing to stop the yatra despite red alerts. “Warnings were issued for over a week,” he said. “Yet yatras continued, and tragedies followed.” He drew parallels with the Machail Mata Yatra in Kishtwar, where pilgrims too had been allowed despite adverse weather warnings.
Omar Abdullah voiced his own concerns. “Why do floods follow after only two days of rain? In 2014, it took eight days. Where did the post-2014 funds go? Why is dredging capacity still inadequate?” he asked, vowing to seek answers from officials. He stressed that people cannot continue to live in fear every time it rains.
Opposition leader Mohammad Tarigami urged the government to declare the floods a national disaster. He demanded immediate compensation, full transparency in relief operations, and urgent corrective measures.
Rising Questions
Experts said the disasters were not merely natural but compounded by years of neglect. Climate scientists argue that warming trends have intensified rainfall, making cloudbursts more frequent. Environmental groups pointed out that deforestation, reckless mining, and unregulated construction have weakened the Himalayas’ natural resilience.
The Environmental Policy Group warned that “unchecked interference in fragile ecosystems has made natural disasters more frequent and destructive.” Even Ladakh, which saw unseasonal snowfall shutting Khardung La in mid-August, was cited as evidence of climate shifts at play.
Independent weather forecaster Faizan Arif, writing on X, noted that in several stretches, floodwaters rose 10–15 feet above official evacuation marks. “In some locations, conditions were even worse than in 2014,” he wrote. Yet he also credited preparedness. “Early warnings, evacuations, and coordination limited the losses. Countless lives were saved.”
The flood threat has ebbed, but the Srinagar–Jammu National Highway (NH-44), Kashmir’s main arterial road, has remained closed for four consecutive days after rains triggered multiple landslides between Udhampur and Ramban, damaging the road and stranding over 1,700 apple-laden trucks at Qazigund and another 250 trucks at Udhampur. Mughal Road, Srinagar–Leh, and Kishtwar–Sinthan routes remain open, with restrictions on heavy traffic. Authorities in Srinagar said the Border Roads Organisation is working to restore damaged interdistrict connectivity across Samba, Kathua, Udhampur, Poonch and Rajouri, where heavy rains and flash floods have triggered further landslides.
Waters Recede, Wounds Remain
By August 28, water levels in the Jhelum dropped from 21 feet to 18 feet. Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Anshul Garg announced receding levels at Sangam and Ram Munshibagh and urged continued vigilance for two more weeks.
On the ground, however, devastation lingered. In Anantnag, 75 sheep were swept away in a single incident. In Bhaderwah, fields of maize and paddy lay flattened. In Srinagar, two men were electrocuted trying to salvage goods from flooded shops. Families returned to mud-stained homes, scraping debris by hand.
The disaster left behind broken bridges, fractured roads, and scarred memories. For many, the flood carried not only water but also grief, resilience, and a haunting question: has Jammu and Kashmir truly learnt from 2014?
Officials in Srinagar said the next fortnight is crucial given the unpredictability of the Western Disturbances that have been impacting Kashmir’s weather conditions forever.
