Flash floods kill at least 37 in remote Kashmir village after torrential rains

Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 37 people in a remote village in Indian-administered Kashmir, authorities said on August 14, as rescue teams evacuated more than 150 people from the devastated Himalayan settlement.

The flooding followed a sudden cloudburst over Chositi village in Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, unleashing landslides and torrents of water through the mountainous terrain. Disaster management official Mohammed Irshad said at least 50 people remain missing, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media. 

India’s deputy minister for science and technology, Jitendra Singh, warned the disaster “could result in substantial casualty.”

Among those rescued, around 50 people suffered serious injuries after being pulled from mud and debris, local official Susheel Kumar Sharma said. Many are being treated in nearby hospitals.

Chositi, the last motorable village on the route of an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a high-altitude shrine, was hosting hundreds of pilgrims when the disaster struck. Officials said multiple pilgrims are feared among the dead or missing. The pilgrimage has been suspended, and additional rescue teams have been dispatched to reinforce relief operations.

First responders included villagers and local officials, later joined by police, disaster management personnel, and India’s military and paramilitary forces.

The floods swept away the main community kitchen serving the pilgrims, along with dozens of vehicles and motorbikes. Officials said over 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen when it was destroyed. Many hillside homes were also damaged or washed away.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “the situation is being monitored closely” and offered his prayers to “all those affected by the cloudburst and flooding.”

“Rescue and relief operations are underway. Every possible assistance will be provided to those in need,” he added in a social media post.

Cloudbursts — intense downpours over a small area — are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions, which are highly vulnerable to flash floods and landslides. Experts attribute the rise partly to climate change, while the impact is worsened by unplanned development in fragile mountain ecosystems.

Kishtwar is also home to several hydroelectric power projects, which scientists have long warned could threaten the region’s environmental stability.

By Sabina Mammadli