When flash floods triggered by a cloudburst in the upper reaches of Kashmir's Kulgam district, approximately 68 km south of Srinagar, ravaged villages on 22 July 2023, among the thousands who experienced destruction of homes and farmlands was Zahoor Dar, 51.

Dar was a resident of Mallbagh Korel, a village with a habitation of only 15 families. Located a few kilometres from the banks of the Vishaw river, a tributary of the Jhelum, Korel faced the full force of the floods.

Dar was working in his apple orchard when he saw a massive surge of muddy water heading towards Korel. Dar rushed home to warn his wife and five children.

“I left the orchard, got my family, and moved them to the elevated main road nearby,” Dar said. “As the water swept through my house and orchard, it felt like doomsday.”

Dar’s two-storey house suffered minor damages, and stacks of bricks and wood he had arranged for renovation work were swept away. The “real hit” was taken by the orchard, he said.

He estimated the damages at Rs 200,000, equivalent to his yearly earnings from sale of apples, his only source of income. After the flood, Dar began to work as a daily wage labourer, in an attempt to make up for the losses.

It was the first time that a flash flood caused such extensive damage in Korel, locals said.

“For others, it may have been just another natural calamity, but for us, it was a man-made crisis,” Dar said. “It happened because of miners in the Vishaw river.”

Mining in riverbeds and riparian areas is usually for the extraction of sand, boulders and gravel, all used in the construction industry, a growing sector that contributes nearly 8% of India’s GDP.


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