Srinagar: After two incidents of avalanche
that claimed 20 lives, authorities today shifted hundreds of
people from the higher reaches as intense cold conditions
revived with night temperature plummeting to sub-zero levels
in parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Although snowfall and rain abated by last evening after
lashing wide parts of the state since February 5, dozens of
families in the high altitude areas in Anantnag, Kupwara and
Baramulla have been shifted to safer places as a precautionary
measure, official sources said.
They were shifted from avalanche-prone hamlets belonging
to Gujjars and Paharis. Two major avalanches and several
landslides had left 19 securitymen and a civilian dead and 10
others injured in the valley past two days.
Over 100 people were shifted from the higher reaches in
Jawahar Tunnel along the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in
the Peer Panchal range of South Kashmir.
Jawahar Tunnel, the gateway to Kashmir, and its
peripheral areas witnessed heavy snowfall prompting the
authorities to suspend traffic on the highway which connects
Kashmir with the rest of the country on February 6.
Similarly, over 450 people living in the high-altitude
areas near the Line of Control in Kupwara, Baramulla and
Bandipora districts were also evacuated, the sources said.
They said 55 people belonging to seven families were
shifted from Machi Krant village of Uri Sector, 101 kms from
here, in view of possible landslides.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 19:03