Rescue team reaches stranded goatherds in Kashmir mountains
By IANSFriday, June 11, 2010
SRINAGAR - A police rescue team Friday reached the Bakarwals, or goatherds, stranded in the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir due to heavy snowfall and started the process of evacuating them, a official said here.
Rescue operations at Qausarmarg meadows in Kulgam district began in the wake of alarming reports that some Bakarwals and their livestock had perished due to unseasonal heavy snowfall.
A police officer, however, maintained that none of the goatherd had died.
“A few Bakarwals have been injured and some livestock has perished in the biting cold and snowfall there,” the officer told IANS.
He said all of them were out of danger and helicopter sorties were also being carried out to evacuate them.
Qausarmarg, a Himalayan meadow in the Pir Panchal mountain range of south Kashmir, is situated over 100 km from summer capital Srinagar. From Kulgam district, one has to brave an uphill trek of over 15 km to reach the meadow.
