At least 32 people have died and around 20 others were injured in a massive landslide on the route to the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district. The disaster struck on Tuesday afternoon near Inderprastha Bhojnalaya at Adhkwari, about halfway along the 12-km trek from Katra to the shrine. Officials said the landslide was triggered by heavy and continuous rainfall in the region.
Rescue teams have been working through the debris since Tuesday, pulling out bodies and looking for survivors. While 30 bodies were found from under the rubble, two of the injured later died in hospital. Authorities fear more people could still be trapped.
The pilgrimage was suspended after the mountainside gave way and stones and boulders rolled down around 3 pm, catching devotees by surprise. The Himkoti trek route had already been closed on Tuesday morning, but the old route was only stopped later in the afternoon after the landslide.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the tragedy, writing on X, “The loss of lives due to a landslide on the route to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Temple is saddening. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover at the earliest. The administration is assisting all those affected.”
Officials said the Jammu region has been witnessing relentless rainfall for several days, causing widespread damage. Just last week, a cloudburst in Kishtwar’s Chisoti village, on the route to the Machail Mata shrine, killed at least 65 people, left more than 100 injured and 32 still missing.
The heavy downpour has also damaged optical fibre lines at multiple locations, leading to a major network outage across Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday. Calls failed to connect, mobile internet stopped working, and even BSNL’s landline services were affected. Telecom companies said the outages were caused by “multiple fibre cuts” and added that technical teams have been dispatched to restore services as quickly as possible.
