The Hindu : National : Many villages feared buried under snow

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Thursday, Feb 24, 2005

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National

Many villages feared buried under snow

By Our Staff Reporter

— Photo: Nissar Ahmad

A COLD TRAGEDY: Villagers stand around the bodies of those killed in an avalanche at Watlangunar Kund in Qazigund on Wednesday.

JAMMU, FEB. 23. After six days of massive snowfall many villages of Jammu and Kashmir are suspected to be still buried under snow. With communication links completely snapped one can barely trek to some of them.

In the higher reaches of Doda district over a dozen villages have lost contact with the rest of the world. Doda town lies in a semi-temperate zone. It has never seen more than two feet of snow for the last 40 years. This time it has recorded six feet of snow. In some remote villages there has been a record snowfall of 14 feet.

Sajjad Kitchloo, MLA from Kishtwar, told The Hindu that he suspected that seven villages of his constituency including Marwah, Wadwan, Chatroo "have been buried beneath snow." The Dakshin-Marwah belt located northwest of Doda district bordering the Kapran belt of Anantnag district is also cut off.

A senior police officer said: "We are in touch with the police posts in these remote areas but still we do not have the exact information. We carried out air sorties to the belt but could not land."

The Divisional Commissioner, B.R. Sharma, said: "We are airdropping food packets and hope that these are picked up by the locals. There has been no information about the condition of the people in Bhaderwah on the border with Himachal Pradesh.

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