landslide Hits Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Track at Ban Ganga in Jammu and Kashmir

Vaishno Devi landslide: A massive landslide hit the old track to Vaishno Devi shrine in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, leaving at least 10 persons including 5 pilgrims injured, officials said.

A booking office and an overhead iron structure caved in due to the landslide triggered by heavy rains in Katra town, the base camp for the pilgrims visiting the shrine atop Trikuta hills, they said.

Yatra to the shrine has been suspended till 1 pm as a precautionary measure.

The incident occurred around 8.30 am at Gulshan Ka Langar near Banganga, the starting point for the yatra where mostly pony riders gather along the old track and register before taking the pilgrims to the cave shrine, 12 km from the town.

Three persons are critically injured and seven others are minor injured. All the injured have been taken to the hospital, officiating CEO of Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Sachin Kumar Vaishya told reporters.

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Katra Block Medical Officer (BMO) Rashpal Bangotra said no casualties have been reported in the landslide incident so far. He said this morning around 8:20 a.m. they received information about the landslide and six injured devotees reached them in 15 minutes, of whom four were shifted to Narayana for treatment.

While speaking to ANI, BMO Bangotra said, "Till now, there is no report for casualties. 6 devotees came to me in an injured state, of whom 4 had orthopaedic injuries, and we have shifted them to Narayana... We got this information around 8:20 a.m., and in around 15 minutes, the devotees came to us."

A family member of the victim said they were booking tickets to visit Vaishno Devi Temple when the whole incident happened. He said stones started falling and then suddenly a landslide occurred and there was a stampede. He added many devotees were buried under the landslide.

The officials said a rescue operation was launched immediately by local volunteers, shrine board staff, SDRF, police and CRPF personnel.

An earth-mover was also rushed to speed up the rescue efforts, they said.

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The critically injured – Uppan (70) of Chennai, his wife K Radha (66) and Rajinder Bhalla (70) of Haryana – are admitted in Narayan hospital while Leela Raikwar (56) of Uttar Pradesh is undergoing treatment at community health centre Katra, the officials said.

Suresh kumar (66) of Maharashtra and two locals Nikhil Thakur (26) and Vicky Sharma were discharged after first aid.

"I was inside the booking office when stones started hitting the overhead iron structure and we alerted others and rushed out fearing a landslide," Thakur told PTI over phone after receiving treatment for his foot injury at the community health centre.

He said there were few devotees and pony riders at the spot as it was raining heavily.

Katra town received 184.2 mm of rainfall in last 24 hours ending 8.30 am Monday.

Another landslide had blocked the new track near Himkoti last night and work is on to clear it.

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