Sajad Chopan
Fear is growing here in the Daksar area of Gool’s Dalwah area in the Ramban district of Jammu Kashmir and the residents are packing up their belongings and cattle in fear of the worst that they fear is approaching. People have been forced to leave behind their ancestral houses and their farmlands.
Around 5 AM on Friday (17 February 2023), chaos gripped the area when the ground suddenly started sinking which resulted in the sinking of two residential houses while about 10 more houses developed massive cracks.
As soon as the ground started sinking, the local residents started rescue operations and successfully evicted people from their homes, including their livestock and valuables, who were at high risk.
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat, a local resident of Ward No. 5 Panchayat Dalwah, Daksar, Abdul Gani said that two houses that have been completely destroyed belonged to Farid Ahmed and Abdul Ghani Pachoo.
While the houses of Hanifa widow Muhammad Ashraf, Muhammad Sadiq son of Karim Din, Abdul Rashid son of Ali Mohammed, Mohammed Shafi, Muhammad Aslam Zargar, Shabir Ali, Habib Hijam, Abdul Rasheed Sheikh and others have been damaged, he said.
Expressing deep concern, he said that the sinking started around 5 am on Friday. “The ground is still moving slowly and if it continues, more residential houses may be affected,” Abdul Ganie said.
As soon as the news of the landslide incident in Dalwah area reached the administration, a team of the Finance Department reached the spot, who reviewed the entire situation and started the process of shifting the people to a safe place.
The officials said that as soon as they received the news of this incident, they immediately reached to the spot. “A massive area has been affected. Not only residential houses but agricultural land has also been damaged in the sinking,” an official told The Kashmiriyat.
He said that the admin has tried to relocate those people whose residential houses have been completely destroyed.
The mountainous regions of Kashmir have reported sinking in the recent past. In Nayi basti area of Doda district, two houses sunk while nineteen others were partially damaged as sinking was reported in the area.