River Of Sorrow: Chenab Steals Sons, Shatters Dreams Amid India-Pakistan Conflict
Farooq Ahmed Koka, a cleric in Lal Bazar, Srinagar, is passing through the most painful phase of his life as he waits for the bodies of his two sons, swallowed by the ruthless current of the Chenab River, now a symbol of a region’s sorrow.
A native of Dharosh village in Doda district, Koka was in Srinagar on June 14, when his sons, Abrar Ahmed (12) and Asrar Ahmed (10), drowned in the Chenab River, with no one able to save them.
Eyewitnesses said the duo were playing cricket at the banks of the river in Pul Doda when the younger one, Asrar, went to fetch a ball from the river and slipped before getting drowned. Without caring for his life, the elder one, Abrar, tried to save his brother and got hold of his legs, but destiny had something else for them. Within no time, they disappeared in the gushing waters, their cries for help unheard.
Dozens of mourners have been visiting Koka at his house in Pul Doda to offer their condolences, but his only plea is to help in retrieving the bodies of his children. “I accept what destiny has written for my children, but my only plea is that their bodies may be recovered soon so that we can perform their last rites and see their faces for the one last time,” he appealed to the administration and Chenab rescuers.
There are many like Koka, who have lost their loved ones in the mighty Chenab River, which has been the bone of contention between India and Pakistan, especially after the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) was kept in abeyance by the Government of India (GoI) in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in south Kashmir. The river originates from the Lahol Spiti area of Himachal Pradesh and flows through five districts of Jammu and Kashmir—Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Reasi and Jammu—before entering Pakistan near Akhnoor. Due to its high speed and the amount of water it gets from different tributaries, the generation capacity of hydroelectric power is the highest in the region, and as per the reports of the government, out of the total 20000 megawatt potential of hydropower in J&K, the river Chenab alone has around 16000 megawatt power generation potential.
Out of these five districts, only Jammu district uses the water of Chenab for irrigation purposes with the help of Ranbir Canal, which was constructed in 1903 by the then Dogra ruler Maharaja Partap Singh, whereas after the IWT was signed in September 1960, the ownership of the river Chenab, along with two other major rivers, Indus and Jhelum, lies with Pakistan.
People of Jammu and Kashmir can only have a look at the river and can’t harness its potential for their benefit. This canal was constructed long before the IWT came into being, and for the last 65 years, trillions of cusecs of water have gone to Pakistan, and the people of Jammu and Kashmir have only suffered.
Rather, it has given them only pain and agony, as dozens and hundreds of people have lost their lives by getting drowned in the river, many due to accidents and some due to suicide.
As per the data available with ETV Bharat, since 2021, around 35 people have died due to drowning in the Chenab falling in the Jammu district, and out of which 32 bodies were recovered, whereas three are still untraceable.
On June 11, 2024, a 22-year-old, Harsh Nagotra, son of Subash Nagotra, a resident of the Jourian area of Khour in the sub-district of Akhnoor in Jammu, died by suicide by jumping into the river. His body was recovered from the river in Pakistan. The Pakistani Rangers had returned the body to Indian authorities through the Ranbir Singh Pura area on the International Border (IB) after completing the identification process, 40 days after his death. Such is the flow of the water in summers that even the nets installed by the government in the river couldn’t stop Harsh Nagotra’s body from crossing.
“This used to be a regular affair earlier, when most of the bodies were being recovered by the Pakistani authorities after getting drowned here. After completing the identification formalities, Pakistani authorities had been returning the bodies, and if somebody remained unidentified, their final rituals were performed across the border,” a police official told ETV Bharat at a police establishment in Akhnoor.
Similarly, in Doda district, through which the mighty Chenab flows and where the reservoir of the Baghliar hydroelectric power project is situated, which is the biggest reservoir on the river Chenab to date, 42 people have died due to drowning in the river since 2021, and out of which only 18 bodies have been recovered, whereas 24 people are still missing. Also, 11 people have been rescued alive by the alert expert divers, who jump into the river without having much of a life support system available.
“Had we been given a proper set-up and if my boys had been accommodated as special police officers (SPOs) or in the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), we would have been able to save many more people. No expert diver from outside can jump into the river Chenab like we do, as we know it in and out, but only social services can’t help our families to survive, as we need to earn a livelihood as well through different means,” Mushtaq Ahmed Sheikh, founder and head of Chenab Rescuers, told ETV Bharat.
Mushtaq is a resident of Pul Doda, and for the last 10 days, he and his team have been busy tracing the bodies of Abrar and Asrar but haven't had any success.
“If the government takes care of the livelihood of my boys, our team will be sitting alongside the river throughout the day, prepared, and in the time of any emergency, the reaction could be fast, and more lives could be saved. We had a motorboat, which was given by former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, but we lost its engine in the river sometime back. We require a new boat to continue the rescue operations, but none is coming forward to help us,” he added.
At present, three major hydroelectric power projects are running on the Chenab River, which include the 900-megawatt Baghliar project, which is with the J&K government, and the Salal and Dul-Hasti projects, which are with the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), but none have done anything for the welfare of the people. They have constructed the reservoirs, but there is no mechanism in place to help with rescue operations if any untoward incident occurs or somebody falls inside the reservoir.
Now, the GoI as well as the Jammu and Kashmir government are eyeing harnessing the potential of the Chenab water, as it is the only river of the region where some of the water can be diverted for other purposes.
On one side, there is a proposal for constructing a 110-km-long canal to take water from Chenab in the Akhnoor area towards neighbouring Punjab, but on the other hand, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, as recently as on Friday, claimed that he would not allow this to happen and the people of Jammu deserve to take the benefit of the water.
Dozens of people have lost their lives by getting drowned in the river, many due to accidents and some by suicide.
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