Authorities issue flood alert in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir Thursday issued a flood alert following increase in water level in the main river and its tributaries, and asked people to move to safer places, officials said.

The alert was declared Wednesday night after incessant rains lashed the region and pushed water level above the danger marks in River Jehlum.

"The non-stop rains since early Wednesday increased the water level in Jhelum river and crossed the danger mark at Sangam in south of Srinagar," an official of Irrigation and Flood Control said. "An alert has been sounded in Srinagar and other parts as water is flowing above danger mark levels."

According to officials the water level at Sangam was 27.15 feet at 11 a.m. local time, more than four feet above the danger mark of 23 feet, while as the river was flowing at 20.50 feet at Ram Munshibagh in Srinagar, more than one and a half feet of the danger mark of 19 feet.

Reports pouring in from Anantnag, Kulgam and Pulwama districts, south of Srinagar, said water inundated several villages, agricultural fields and localities, forcing people to move to safer places and shift their belongings.

"Throughout night we were shifting merchandise to safer places as water level kept increasing," said Muzaffar Ahmad Tak, a businessman in Anantnag. "Even water has logged localities and a slight increase in its level will flood the whole town."

Tak suffered huge losses in the last year's flood that hit the region.

The surge in water level has panicked people and shopkeepers, who were making frenetic efforts to save their merchandise.

India's official broadcaster- All India Radio Thursday said people living in and around flood prone areas have been advised to shift to safer areas.

Reports pouring in from Kulgam said Vaisahw tributary has wreaked havoc in Kulgam district by damaging bridges, diversions and destroying paddy cultivation. Last year the tributary washed away many villages and caused huge land erosions in the district.

Meteorological Department has predicted more rain and thunder showers in the region in next 12 hours.

"Moderate to heavy rainfall is likely to will occur in the region in next 12 hours and thereafter weather is likely to improve by Friday," an official at Meteorological Department office Srinagar said.

The incessant rains have triggered landslides at several places on Srinagar-Jammu and Srinagar-Ladakh highways, forcing authorities to close the roads.

Indian-controlled Kashmir is reeling under massive devastation and destruction wreaked by floods in 2014. The floods inflicted an estimated loss of 16 billion U.S. dollars in the region and killed 300 people. Endi