Amarnath Cloudburst: Over 10 Karnataka pilgrims make narrow escape

Over 10 pilgrims from Karnataka had a narrow escape from the flash floods and landslides that claimed 16 lives on the Amarnath yatra route in Jammu & Kashmir on Friday (July 8).

They escaped what could have been sure death just by minutes. According to Chandrashekar, who led the group of pilgrims from Nanjangud in Mysuru, the devotees had a narrow escape during flash floods that swept away a dozen tourists.

“We were just a kilometre away from the spot where the flash floods occurred. It happened some 15-20 minutes after we returned from darshan," he said.

Another group of 15 women from Shivamogga, including ex-deputy mayor Surekha Muralidhar, reached the base camp on Saturday and will arrive in Bengaluru on Monday.

A batch of 55 pilgrims from the Kalaburagi and Bidar districts were sent back from Srinagar while on their way to Amarnath after visiting the Vaishnodevi temple.

Notably, over 370 pilgrims from Karnataka are reportedly stranded following a cloudburst near the cave shrine of Amarnath. There have been no casualties.

Most of the pilgrims are from Ramanagara, Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapura, Mysuru, Mandya, Shivamogga, Bagalkot, Dakshina Kannada, and Kolar.

“We have launched a helpline, and the state chief secretary is in direct contact with the Union government. There is no report of any untoward incident related to Kannadigas. We are in touch with the Jammu and Kashmir government too,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

The state has set up a 24x7 state emergency operation centre to reach out to relatives of the stranded and update them on the rescue measures. Emergency helpline numbers are: 080-1070 and 080-22340676.