It was like doomsday on Sunday in mountainous districts Poonch and Rajouri of Jammu division when heavy rains triggered flash floods and washed away several houses and caused the death of 11 persons with several still missing.The intensity of rains was such that within minutes streams and water bodies gushed into residential areas taking people off guard. While the entire Jammu and Kashmir region was reeling under severe heat waves, sudden shift of temperatures coupled with western disturbance wreaked havoc in Poonch and Rajouri. The worst hit by flash floods is Surankote tehsil of Poonch district witnessing most of the casualties. After flash floods, Bela Colony of Rajouri was submerged and dozens of vehicles and houses were swept away. All that the authorities could do in such a situation is to issue advisories and launch rescue operations to save the survivors.

There has been a massive increase in cloudbursts, flash floods and erratic weather patterns in J&K from the last few years with experts blaming massive rise in temperatures triggered by climate change. J&K is a multi-hazard prone Himalayan region which is vulnerable to natural disasters especially earthquake, floods, landslides, windstorms and soil erosion. J&K ranks third among the Himalayan areas which are vulnerable to climate change and fall in the highest seismic zones. Anantnag, Kulgam, and Ganderbal districts in Kashmir while Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Rajouri, Poonch Reasi, and Udhampur districts in Jammu division have emerged in high vulnerability category in terms of frequent cloud bursts, flash floods, landslides of the last 15 years in J&K.

A new study “Warming of the high-mountainous climate sensitive Jammu........

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