When the Skies Break Over Kashmir

Cloudbursts in Jammu and Kashmir have turned mourning into routine. Eleven years after the great floods, the region still waits for real preparedness.

- Faizan Ashraf

August has been merciless in Jammu and Kashmir. Three times in less than two weeks, the skies split open and entire communities were left counting their dead.

In Kishtwar, Kathua, and Doda, cloudbursts swept away homes, roads, and lives with an ease that felt like repetition.

The pattern was chilling in its familiarity.

Sudden sheets of rain, a roar of water and stone, families scrambling to escape, and rescue teams rushing in when it was already too late.

On August 14, the people of Chositi village in Kishtwar faced a calamity that will haunt the region for years. Pilgrims on the Machail Mata Yatra route were caught in the fury of a cloudburst. Sixty-seven lives were lost within minutes, and many more remain missing.

Those who survived speak of an explosion of water and debris, a force so violent it erased homes and people without warning.

Grief filled the region, where mourning is still unfinished when new tragedy strikes.