Shakeel Ahmad’s body was discovered a day after he went missing while attempting to rescue a tourist from Uttarakhand from drowning at Tarsar Lake in south Kashmir’s Anantnag amid a flood-like condition.
- On Wednesday, a party of ten tourists and three local guides were on their way to view Tarsar Lake in the Sikwas district of Pahalgam.
- On Thursday, the corpse of a missing tourist guide was discovered, but a non-local visitor remained missing in the Tarsar lake incident in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
The unknowns in the Tarsar Lake
The corpse of a local tourist guide, who was part of a larger group of 13 tourists and locals on a trekking trip, was managed to regain on Thursday, just after he went missing all the while attempting to rescue a tourist from drowning near Tarsar Lake in south Kashmir’s Anantnag during a flood-like situation on Wednesday, officials said.
The tourist from Uttarakhand remains unknown, while officials have recovered the rest of the party.
According to officials, Shakeel Ahmad, 25, a native of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal, was discovered dead in Lidderwat in Anantnag. They said he attempted to save the tourist when he was carried away by rapidly flowing water from a bridge across Lidder stream.
“We retrieved Shakeel’s corpse downstream at Lidderwath, but we’re still looking for the tourist.” Dr. Mahesh from Uttarakhand ” stated Mohammad Hussain, Tehsildar of Pahalgam.
The group of 13, which included eight visitors and five guides, trekkers, and pony-walls, was on its way to Tarsar Lake when torrential rains had swollen the region’s rivers and lakes. At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, the water level in south Kashmir reached 21 feet, prompting the declaration of a flood. “The party was crossing the Lidder stream on a bridge when Dr. Mahesh was carried away.” “Ahmad attempted to save the visitor but drowned as well,” Hussain explained.
On Wednesday, the government dispatched a rescue team that included members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), a local rafting group, and police. “We’ve recovered 11 of the 13,” he added.
Officials have sent rafting boats all down the Lidder to search for the tourist’s body.
“The stream’s flow had surged significantly due to the five days of nonstop rain.” “The conditions have also turned slick,” he added.
Meanwhile, the water level in the Jhelum and its tributaries has dropped significantly in south Kashmir and, to a lesser degree, in Srinagar as weather conditions have improved since Wednesday afternoon.
The level of water at Sangam was 16.31 feet at 5 p.m. Thursday, down from the previous high of 22.09 feet at 8 p.m. Wednesday after a flood was declared at 21 feet.
Similarly, the water level at Srinagar’s Ram Munshi Bagh observatory had dropped to 18.46 feet at 5 p.m. on Thursday, from a high of 19.77 feet at 4 a.m. The water is still above the flood warning threshold of 18 feet.
“A maximum gauge of 22.09 feet was reported yesterday at 8 p.m. at Sangam.” At 8 a.m., the current measurement at Sangam is 19.65 feet; the gauge has decreased by only 2.44 feet in 12 hours. “Normally, the Sangam gauge should have lowered by more than 6 feet by now,” the irrigation and flood control agency stated in a Facebook post. “It was an unusual event, most likely suggesting that one or two catchments (Virchow & Rambiyara) had received very high-intensity rains that assured continuous flow was supplied to Sangam (poor enough that it couldn’t force the gauge higher but strong enough that it didn’t drop soon).” To summarise, it was a “localized catchment high-intensity rainfall event.”
The search for the missing tourist is still ongoing in the region. Since Monday, the region has been experiencing nonstop rain and heavy snowfall, leaving the group stuck.
