Stranded for 4 days, survivors return to Delhi

Travellers to Jammu and Kashmir have returned with a tale of horror. Hundreds of residents of Delhi and NCR, who were on the tour to Vaishno Devi in Jammu or on holiday in Kashmir, got stranded in the floods for more than four days. The survivors say they never saw anything like that in their life.

“For the last 14 consecutive years, in the month of August or September, I have visited Vaishno Devi for prayers. This was for the first time I was not able to visit the holy temple,” said Digvijay Singh, a journalist who got stranded for four days in Jammu.

“There was such a heavy downpour that we were not able to step out from our hotel for four days. Our family members were also worried as there was very weak mobile signal,” he added.

The distance from Katra to Jammu is of two hours but due to a heavy downpour and waterlogging, it took them five hours to reach Katra.

“We returned from Banganga as the authorities were not allowing anyone to climb the hill. We saw a number of landslides on our way,” said Digvijay’s wife Vanita Raghuvanshi.

The chopper service from Katra to Vaishno Devi was also suspended for four-five days.

“This was the third time I travelled to Jammu to pray at Vaishno Devi with my family. My mother and father had a reservation in the Pawan Hans chopper service. But when we reached there, we got to know that the chopper service had been suspended due to bad weather,” said Nishit Malhotra, a resident of Delhi who returned from Jammu on Monday.

“It reminded me of the Kedarnath flood. Once I thought I will be stranded here like the victims of Kedarnath flash flood, but then I realised that there were army personnel everywhere for help. Finally we returned as soon as the rain stopped,” said Nishit’s wife Priyanaka Joshi Malhotra.