Katra: Due to ongoing poor weather and safety concerns in the Trikuta Hills in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Yatra is still on hold for the ninth day in a row on Wednesday.
Heavy rains over the past week have caused landslides, flash floods, and disruption of essential routes leading to the shrine.
Authorities have maintained that the yatra will only resume once the weather improves and all routes are declared safe for pilgrims. District administration and Shrine Board officials are closely monitoring the situation, while rescue and restoration teams remain on high alert.
Meanwhile, the base camp at Katra wears a deserted look, with several devotees still waiting in the hope of resuming their pilgrimage.
On August 27, the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi yatra was suspended due to a landslide that killed 34 people and heavy rainfall. Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha ordered the constitution of a high-level three-member committee to investigate the causes of the landslide.
Shaleen Kabra, Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Jal Shakti, Jammu and Kashmir, will head the committee, which includes the Divisional Commissioner and the Inspector General of Police, Jammu. According to an official order, the committee also includes the Divisional Commissioner and the Inspector General of Police, Jammu.
Meanwhile, amid heavy rainfall in several Indian states, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued red alert warnings for several districts across Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, northern Punjab, northern Haryana, eastern Rajasthan, southwest Uttar Pradesh, northwest & eastern Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.
According to IMD, districts under red alert in Jammu & Kashmir include Poonch, Mirpur, Rajouri, Reasi, Jammu, Ramban, Udhampur, Samba, Kathua, Doda, and Kishtwar. In Punjab, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Nawashahr, Rupnagar, Moga, Ludhiana, Barnala, and Sangrur are under red alert; while in Himachal Pradesh, Mandi, Una, Bilaspur, Sirmaur, and Solan are under similar warnings. Haryana's Yamuna Nagar, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Panchkula, and SAS Nagar are also under the same warning.
Between 8:30 am on Tuesday and 5:30 am on Wednesday, several regions in Jammu & Kashmir witnessed significant rainfall. The highest was recorded in Reasi at 203 mm, followed closely by Katra at 193 mm, Batote at 157.3 mm, Doda at 114 mm, and Baderwah at 96.2 mm. Jammu city itself received 81 mm, while other stations such as Banihal (95 mm), Ramban (82 mm), Kokernag (68.2 mm), and Pahalgam (55 mm) also saw heavy rainfall.
Moreover, rainfall was also reported in Srinagar (32 mm), Samba (48 mm), Kishtwar (50 mm), Rajouri (57.4 mm), Srinagar (32 mm) and Qazigund (68 mm) during the same period. Fresh data up to 6:45 am on September 3 showed extremely heavy rainfall in Jammu & Kashmir's Reasi at 230.5 mm.
Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, widespread rainfall was also observed across several states.
While parts of Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, coastal Odisha, coastal Maharashtra, coastal Karnataka, and the Andaman Islands experienced moderate rainfall, Chhattisgarh experienced heavy rainfall from 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday to 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
