CHASOTI (KISHTWAR): Almost as many severed limbs as intact bodies have been recovered in Chasoti in the past two days after the flash floods, leaving villagers and doctors at Atholi sub-district hospital, 30km downhill from the affected area, shaken. On Monday, one intact body and a severed leg were retrieved. On Tuesday, four more bodies and two severed feet arrived, taking the confirmed death toll to 68. With 72 still missing and no survivors found after the first two days, doctors and villagers said the tragedy has already claimed “at least 140 lives”, though they believe the final toll could climb higher.“We safely say that we are past 140, but in reality this number means nothing,” Dr Rakesh Kotwal told TOI. “The way things are, the toll will not stop here.”The first sense of what had happened reached Atholi at about 1.15pm on Aug 14, when Kotwal received a call from his colleague Dr Devendra Kumar, who was stationed in Chasoti. “It’s all over, all over, all over. The langar is gone,” Sharma repeated. He told Kotwal there had been 350- 400 people at the langar when the flood struck, and named several locals who were later confirmed dead.Kotwal added that about 100 people were on the narrow bridge across the stream at the time, crossing from both directions. “We can account for about 14 locals,” Kotwal said, “but there is no way of knowing how many others were there. There were pilgrims from other districts, labourers from UP, Bihar and Jharkhand who had come to Kishtwar for work but joined the yatra, and vendors selling pooja items and offering massages. Some even come from Nepal. None of them are on any list.”In Atholi, the numbers are kept by Naseer Ahmed, an accountant at the hospital who has been recording the bodies and parts brought in. He scoffs at the official figures. “The authorities never knew how many people were really there,” he said. “To say 140 is the toll is laughable.”Doctors and locals insist that those still missing should already be counted as dead. “The last injured person came here on Aug 16,” said Dr Showkat, a surgeon at the hospital, where bodies are wrapped in bags and put into ambulances to be taken to Govt Medical College and Hospital, Jammu. “Since then, we have received only bodies and body parts. There is no possibility of survivors now. The missing are gone.”On Tuesday, the sun broke through for the first time since the flood. As the waters receded, more bodies began to surface. But with them came no hope — only confirmation that the missing were dead.Both Showkat and Kotwal admitted that finding an intact body now feels like a form of relief. “When a complete body comes in, at least a family can take their relative home, perform rites and find closure,” Showkat said. “But when it is only a leg or a foot, we have to keep it separately, record it as a casualty, and wait for DNA. Until then, it is an orphaned piece of information.”Limbs and torsos are being catalogued and sent to Jammu, where DNA samples from families will be stored and matched. “Right now, even a severed limb is treated as a separate dead person, because it cannot be matched,” Naseer Ahmed said.In Chasoti, villagers spoke of waiting not for loved ones alive but for whatever fragments might be found. Abdul Majid, 54, whose nephew is among the missing, said simply: “A hand is someone’s son, a foot is someone’s father. We wait for parts in bags now.”Shiv Kumar, 38, lost his sister and her two children. Only her torso has been recovered. “We lit the pyre for what we had, but the mourning does not end,” he said. “We still wait for her children.”Some have not even had that much. Shabnam Begum, 29, who lost her husband and father-in-law, said she no longer goes to the riverbank. “In the first days I stood there, thinking someone alive might still come out. Now I know it is only limbs, only pieces. I cannot watch anymore.”Rescue teams from SDRF, NDRF, the Army and police continue their operations, but even they admit there is nothing left to rescue. Inspector Manoj Kumar of NDRF said, “We are not looking for survivors anymore. We are only recovering the dead.” Sub-inspector Altaf Hussain of the SDRF, who has been ferrying remains from Chasoti to Atholi, added: “Every intact body we find feels like a mercy. Families can claim them whole. But most of the time, it is just parts.”
