15 trapped in snowstorm rescued from Sarthal
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU/ SRINAGAR, Dec 28: While at least 15 persons trapped in snow storm in Sarthal area of Bani Sub Division in Kathua were recued by GREF and Police team today, the heavy snowfall in many hilly areas of Jammu region including Bhaderwah, Kishtwar, Udhampur, Kathua and Poonch areas over night blocked many roads whereas, power and water supply to a large number of snow bound areas has been snapped.
The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway which was blocked after snowfall in Jawahar Tunnel area last night, was restored at around 9.15 am today while Doda-Bhaderwah, Chenani-Latti-Dudu and Basantgarh roads besides Bani-Loang- Sarthal and many link roads in Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar. Poonch and Reasi area were blocked due to heavy snowfall of the season.
Official sources said that famous tourist resort Patnitop, Nathatop and Sanasar experienced about 1.5 ft to 2 ft snowfall, Latti and Dudu nearly 2 to 3 ft snow, Mata Vaishnodevi shrine nearly 8-10 inch snowfall while famous Bhaderwah tourist resort in Doda district nearly 10 inch snowfall. Entire Bhalessa -Gandoh area has also experienced 2-3 feet snowfall and power supply has been snapped there since last evening.
With the freezing temperature in these mountainous areas, the water supply has also been hit in these areas. Even in Bani, Loang,Duggan and Machhedi areas of Kathua district, power and water supply has been badly affected. Similar reports have been received from Loran, Sawjian and Surankote areas of Poonch.
A batch of five tourists from Kathua and 10 local people from different villages of Tehsil Bani who came to enjoy the snows fall at famous tourist resort- Sarthal, got stuck there due to the sudden heavy snow storm overnight.
SDM Bani, Joginder Singh Jasrotia and SHO Bani, Rahul Mahajan received information that some people were trapped at Sarthal and immediately deputed a police party led by Gulam Nabi (ASI), I/C PP Loang and with the help GREF employees, they rescued all the people from heavy snowfall.
The locals of the area commended job of the Bani administration and Police Department. People who were rescued from Sarthal are- Gurpreet Singh, Varun Chauhan, Sukhvinder Singh, Gagan Deep Singh, Joginder Jeet Singh all (tourists) from Kathua and Dev Raj from Chandal, Chuni Lal from Sandroon, Puran Chand- Sandroon, Railmo Devi – Sandroon, Angraz Singh- Sarthali, Surjeet Singh – Kothi, Jerm Singh- Sarthali, Rano Devi- Sarthali, Parbhat -Sarthali, Rani- Chandal etc. They were trapped there last evening. They had to cover about 15 kms distance on foot.
The Kathua based five tourist were still at Bani as their vehicle was still trapped in the snow at Sarthal. SDM Bani Joginder Singh told that all possible help including lodging and boarding facility was given to the rescued persons. Whereas, a medical team was deputed for medical aid to these rescued people.
Reports from Reasi said that many roads in Mahore and Gulabgarh area of Reasi district are also blocked due to fresh snowfall in the hilly areas and Mata Vaishnodevi shrine on Sunday night, but bringing cheers to tourists, residents and hoteliers of Katra.
Various areas which received heavy snowfall are Bhawan/ Shrine, Mahore, Chassana , Namal, Matah,Chillad,Judda, Gulabgarh, Sungri, Bathoie and Neeram. The roads including Mahore to Gool, Mahore to Gulabgarh and Mahore -Budhal have also been blocked. Electricity supply was snapped at Mahore and other higher reaches due to heavy snowfall.
Meanwhile, some students from Mahore, Gulabgarh and Chasana areas said that they faced extreme difficulty to reach school as there was class 11th exam today. The students said that due to heavy snowfall and road blockade they reached examination centre late while some missed the exam. The matter was also brought into the consideration of higher authorities who assured to address the problem.
Similar problem was faced by the students and staff who arrived after walking over 1-2 ft snow at Loang, Bani and Duggan/ Taggar Higher Secondary Schools to appear in class 11th exam. They had already requested the School Board authorities to postpone the exam but authorities remained unmoved.
A MeT spokesmn said that there will be further decline in temperature in Jammu region in next 2-3 days while there will be rain and snowfall at some isolated places in the region tomorrow. However, the weather will remain fair from December 30 to January 3. The weather would remain dry across Ladakh and Kashmir regions for the next four days as well.
Jammu recorded a lowest of 6.4 degree Celsius temperature, Katra 4.0 degree C while Bhaderwah had -0.2 Degree C temperature today. Leh recorded -8.2 degree C and Kargil -12.8 deg temperature today.
Meanwhile, reports from Kashmir said that there were clouds cover over the Valley and light precipitation at few places in the South, the night temperature has considerably improved with the scale rising from minus to plus.
The mercury settled in Srinagar at 0.6°C, against minus 5.2 °C on the previous night. The MeT officials told Excelsior that the Maximum temperature was also above the normal in Srinagar.
It is to be mentioned here that Srinagar faced second coldest night at minus 6.6 °C in a decade on December 19. However, as of now, due to the cloud cover, there has been a change in the temperature.
Deputy Director, MeT, Srinagar Station, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad told Excelsior that there has been a rise in the temperature in Srinagar as well as in other places due to the cloud cover. However, he said that the temperatures will take a further dip as the system has begun to change from the evening (on Monday)
“While there has been a rise in the temperatures, but, there has been a change in the system and the temperatures will take a further dip from tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said.
He said that till January 3, the system does not show any big change and the weather is going to remain dry till then. “So far it shows that there is not going to be any change in the system till January 3, but after that, there will be a change in it,” he said.
Notably, the temperature also remained above or equal to normal in other parts of the Valley. The ski-resort of Gulmarg recorded a low of -6.5°C against minus 7.2 °C on the previous night.
Pahalgam also recorded a low of minus 1.3 °C against minus 5.9°C on the previous night. Pahalgam also received rain, Qazigund recorded minus 0.3 °C, Kupwara minus 0.5°C and Kokernag minus 1.5 °C.
Pertinent to mention here, Kashmir is currently reeling under ‘Chilla-e-Kalan’ which is a 40-day winter period which commenced from December 21 and will end by the end of January. The period marks a considerable dip in night and day temperatures.
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