J-K: Landslide damages over dozen houses in Ramban, 13 families shifted

Jammu: Over a dozen residential houses were damaged in a massive landslide in a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ramban district, rendering 13 families homeless, officials said on Sunday.

The affected families were shifted to safer locations and provided immediate relief, while the main road passing near the village was closed for vehicular traffic after developing cracks, they said.

The incident that took place in Duksar Dal village in Gool sub-division, 45 km from Ramban district headquarters, comes barely a fortnight after 19 residential houses, a mosque, and a religious school for girls developed cracks due to land sinking at Nai Basti village of Doda district.

”A total of 13 houses were damaged and rendered uninhabitable due to the landslide at Duksar Dal over the past three days. The affected families were shifted and provided tents, ration, utensils and blankets as immediate relief,” Sub-Divisional Magistrate Gool Tanveer-ul-Majeed Wani told PTI.

He said the land started sliding on Friday, also affecting a local graveyard following which the mortal remains of a local were exhumed and later buried at another place.

”We are monitoring the situation and have placed restrictions for the time being on the movement of people in the area as the land is still sinking. The experts from Geological Survey of India (GSI) are visiting the place within the next couple of days to inspect the scene and look for the reasons for the sudden landslide,” the officer said.

He said the affected families would be provided compensation from the State Disaster Management Fund as per laid down norms within the shortest possible time.

The SDM said the main road connecting Gool and Sangaldan was closed after it also developed cracks and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was requested to make the alternate road motorable to facilitate movement of people and defence vehicles.

Raqeeb Wani, the local sarpanch, said ”The people are in a panic as we have never witnessed such a thing in the past. We are thankful to the district administration for the quick response and we are hopeful that all the affected families will be suitably rehabilitated.” He said agricultural and horticulture land was also hit by the landslide and the farmers needed to be provided adequate compensation for the loss of fruit bearing trees.

Meanwhile, a three-member team from the National Institute of Disaster Management headed by Professor Surya Prakash visited Nai Basti village of Tharthri for a survey on Sunday, officials said.

Earlier, several other teams including experts from the GSI also inspected the affected village to ascertain the underlying factors for the development of cracks in the concrete structures.