‘I just want to find them’: deadly cloudbursts devastate Kashmir’s mountain communities
A devastating cloudburst in the Pir Panjal mountains of Kashmir has destroyed homes and left families missing in the village of Murrah. Rescue efforts are hampered by damaged infrastructure and unstable terrain caused by increasingly erratic weather patterns.
Why it matters
The tragedy underscores the human cost of climate change in vulnerable, remote mountain communities that lack the infrastructure to withstand extreme weather events.
Rescue teams search for missing people in Murrah village after the cloudburst-triggered landslide. Photograph: Ishtayaq Rasool Increasingly erratic weather patterns due to climate change mean people are losing homes, crops and livestock
Prefer the Guardian on Google A s rain lashed the Pir Panjal mountains before dawn on 19 July, Haji Mohammad Latief stepped outside his home in Murrah, a remote mountain village in Indian-administered Kashmir . His daughter had asked him to move the family’s car to a safer place as the rain got heavier.
“I had only just parked it,” Latief recalled. “When I turned around, I saw the water coming.” Minutes later, a cloudburst sent mud, boulders and water crashing down the hillside.
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