Flood fears in Kashmir as River Jhelum flows above danger mark

The tributaries of the Jhelum were also flowing above danger level with water level in Asia’s largest freshwater-body – Wular Lake – reaching 1575.87m

Incessant rains over the past two days in Kashmir have led to rise in water level in all the major and minor rivers and tributaries with the Jhelum river crossing the flood deceleration mark at Sangam in Anantnag district on Wednesday afternoon.

The tributaries of the Jhelum, including River Sindh and Vishnow Nallah were also flowing above danger level with water level in Asia’s largest freshwater-body – Wular Lake – reaching 1575.87m against flood deceleration mark of 1578, officials said.

At Munshi Bagh gauge in Srinagar city, an official of Irrigation & Flood Control Department said, the water level was 15.47-ft, just 2.3-ft below the flood deceleration level of 18-feet.

With the Jhelum and its tributaries flowing above the danger mark, authorities started moving people from low-lying areas to safer locations. Low-lying areas in Srinagar city and other parts of the Valley are facing water logging as higher reaches are threatened by flash floods and mudslides.

With the threat of mudslides and rising water levels, authorities in many districts suspended class work up to class 10th.

Chief Engineer Flood and Irrigation Control, Narish Kumar advised people not to panic “as the situation presently was under control.”

With the Meteorological department forecasting an improvement in the weather from the afternoon onwards, the water level is expected to decrease and the situation will be normal by Thursday,” he said.

There has also been unseasonal snowfall in the upper reaches of the Valley in recent days which has left hundreds of nomadic families in distress as they along with their livestock have got stuck in snow.

Notably, tribal Gujjar and Bakarwal families migrate to the upper reaches in the summer every year for grazing their cattle.

The unseasonal snowfall in the upper reaches has resulted in sharp dip in temperatures in the plains of the valley. Srinagar recorded a maximum temperature of 15.0 degree Celsius on Tuesday making it the coldest day in almost 50 years. Tuesday’s temperature was 14.2 notches lower than the normal for this time of the year in Srinagar.

In September 2014, Kashmir witnessed disastrous floods across the majority of its districts caused by torrential rainfall in which more than 280 people were killed and property worth billions destroyed. Several thousand villages across the Valley were hit while nearly 2600 villages were completely submerged.

Several parts of capital Srinagar, including the Border Security Force (BSF) headquarters uptown in Sanant Nagar and Army cantonment in Badami Bagh, were inundated. Vital roads remained submerged for weeks while communication networks, electricity and other essential service broke down after September 7, 2014.