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Srinagar, India (AFP) March 13, 2007 At least 50 people were killed as snow engulfed Kashmir and torrential rains pounded the rest of northern India, officials said Tuesday. Some 28 people were killed and 25 others received burn injuries in separate lightning strikes in Uttar Pradesh as rains crippled life in the populous northern Indian state, they said. Seventeen people, including two children and a soldier died in landslides, cold and floods in Indian Kashmir and its summer capital Srinagar reported its heaviest March snowfall in 15 years, weather officials said. Five other weather-related casualties were reported from other parts of northern India, lashed by rains since Friday. In Kashmir, five Hindu pilgrims trekking to a snowbound shrine high in the Himalayas froze to death. A police patrol discovered the five bodies huddled together Monday in a shelter built to protect travellers to the Vaishno Devi shrine. "All five pilgrims died of hypothermia as they weren't wearing enough clothes and heavy snow had brought down temperatures," said Puneet Kumar, a senior official at the shrine. Another 13 people suffered hypothermia injuries. Nine were in critical condition but were "recovering fast" in hospital, the official said. The dead were all from Uttar Pradesh, and officials said they had underestimated the cold at that time of year in Kashmir where the mercury regularly falls below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit). "Ten more people died due to hypothermia, landslides and caving in of structures across the state," a police officer said while rescue officials reported another two deaths in the snowbound region. Snowstorms have paralysed life in revolt-hit Kashmir, shutting schools, knocking out power and telephone lines and closing the region's main highway, police said. "The main highway has been shut due to heavy snow and nearly 800 vehicles are stranded," police officer Abdul Hameed told AFP. Labourers were using bulldozers, snow removal machines and shovels to open up the 300-kilometre (186-mile) highway, the main route for supplies to the Kashmir valley from state winter capital Jammu and the rest of the subcontinent. "It may take us a few days to restore power supply in the valley," senior engineer Nissar Ahmed said. Offices in the region were still open but many people were late as they had to walk through the thick blanket of snow. Earlier this month, India's air force airlifted to safety more than 5,000 people stranded for days in sub-zero temperatures on the main highway by avalanches and landslides. The Indian army has a strong presence in Kashmir where it is fighting to suppress a deadly Islamic separatist insurgency that has raged since 1989.
earlier related report A police patrol discovered the five bodies huddled together Monday in a shelter built to protect travellers to the Vaishno Devi shrine. "All five pilgrims died of hypothermia as they weren't wearing enough clothes and heavy snow had brought down temperatures," said Puneet Kumar, a senior official at shrine, where the pilgrims were headed. Another 13 people suffered hypothermia injuries. Nine were in critical condition but were "recovering fast" in hospital, the official said. The dead were all from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and officials said they had underestimated the cold at that time of year in Kashmir where the mercury regularly falls below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit). A sixth person died Tuesday when he was hit by a tree in the snowstorms that began last weekend which have crippled life in revolt-hit Kashmir, shutting schools, knocking out power and closing the region's main highway, police said. "The main highway has been shut due to heavy snow and nearly 800 vehicles are stranded," police officer Abdul Hameed told AFP. However, he said all passengers were safe. Labourers were using bulldozers, snow removal machines and shovels to open up the 300-kilometre (186-mile) highway, the main route for supplies to the Kashmir valley from state winter capital Jammu and the rest of the subcontinent. The freezing winter weather has snapped power and telephone lines across the Kashmir valley. "It may take us a few days to restore power supply in the valley," senior engineer Nissar Ahmed said. Offices in the region were still open but many people were late as they had to walk through the thick blanket of snow. Earlier this month, India's air force airlifted to safety more than 5,000 people stranded for days in sub-zero temperatures on the main highway by avalanches and landslides. The Indian army has a strong presence in Kashmir where it is fighting to suppress a deadly Islamic separatist insurgency that has raged since 1989.
Source: Agence France-Presse Email This Article
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Huntsville AL (SPX) Mar 05, 2007People have lived with rain and snow for millennia, and scientists have studied weather for more than a century. You might think that, after all that time, we would have precipitation pretty much figured out. And you'd be wrong "It's amazing how much we don't know about global patterns of rain and snow," says Walt Petersen, an atmospheric scientist with the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) and the University of Alabama (UAH) in Huntsville. |
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