Srinagar: A devastating flood that struck Chisoti village in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir on August 14 last year killed Hari Singh’s father, his sister’s daughter, three aunts and a cousin among at least seven family members.“We couldn’t find some of their bodies. The flood made us homeless and landless overnight. Seven to eight of our houses were destroyed. Ours is the worst hit family, yet the government has done little to help us,“ Singh who ran a food stall in the village for the Machail Mata shrine devotees told The Wire over phone.On the first day of the pilgrimage, the idol of Machail Mata was taken in a procession from a local priest’s house to the main temple in Machail village of Padder. Photo: Imran Shah.The annual Hindu pilgrimage resumed on Tuesday (April 14) for the first time after a deadly flood tore through the village killing more than 60 people, mostly devotees, while dozens of missing persons are presumed dead. On the first day of the pilgrimage, the idol of Machail Mata was taken in a procession from a local priest’s house to the main temple in Machail village of Padder. An official spokesperson said that Jammu’s divisional commissioner Ramesh Kumar, inspector general Bhim Sen Tuti and deputy commissioner Pankaj Kumar Sharma among others attended the ceremony and also offered prayers at the shrine.“The yatra transformed Chisoti,” Singh said, “For the duration of the pilgrimage every year, the village was owned by the pilgrims.”Thousands of devotees poured through the sparse mountain village chanting religious hymns with some halting for the night and filling the streets that are otherwise quiet with the sounds and commerce of faith.Dozens of local villagers and migrant workers from different parts of the country used to set up stalls hawking freshly brewed tea and home-cooked food, idols, garlands and lamps among other items connected to the faith of the passing pilgrims. However, more than eight months after the flood, the Himalayan village looks frozen in time. Its geography has been permanently altered by flood while its residents are struggling to come out of their bruised past.The ugly blows inflicted by nature are still fresh in the village in the form of scarred hillsides and broken houses, some of which are still covered by dried sludge. A few shops have resumed business but there are no devotees. A temple whose foundation was partially washed away in the deluge hangs precariously from the edge of the river which became Chisoti’s horror in a neglected state. According to an official estimate, 19 houses and three temples were completely damaged while dozens were partially hit along with some shops and other structures in one of the deadliest natural disasters in Jammu and Kashmir in the recent past. Ten days after the flood, senior BJP leader Sunil Sharma, who is also Leader of the Opposition in J&K, visited the village. In a Facebook post, Sharma assured that the houses would be rebuilt before winter. But eight months after the tragedy, most of the destroyed structures have not been rebuilt amid the alleged insufficiency of funds and fears that the river might change course in the coming summer. According to officials and local villagers, authorities have released Rs 2.35 lakh from the chief minister’s fund and disaster management department to each villager whose house was completely destroyed in the tragedy. However, most villagers have found the compensation amount insufficient to rebuild their homes.“Politicians made a beeline in the village when the tragedy happened. Our MLA promised us Rs 10 lakh which he brought down to Rs 2.5 lakh afterwards. Later, he backtracked completely,” Singh said. Chisoti falls in Padder-Nagseni constituency of Jammu division which is represented in J&K assembly by senior Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Sunil Sharma.A year before the flood struck, Chisoti was the last village where pilgrims disembarked from their vehicles to undertake a ten-km hike to the Himalayan shrine. Photo: Imran Shah.Hukum Chand, a teacher at a government-run school in Chisoti, said that the flood “swept away the glory” of the village with it, noting that there was a fear of the river among the residents as well as the devotees.A year before the flood struck, Chisoti was the last village where pilgrims disembarked from their vehicles to undertake a ten-km hike to the Himalayan shrine. Some of them stayed in the village for the night and resumed their pilgrimage the next morning.“There were three big temples and lots of structures. Now the village is covered by stones. It looks barren. In place of temples, three small structures were built by locals to continue the rituals but the devotees no longer halt in the village,” Chand said.Last year, a bridge was thrown open which enabled the vehicles carrying the pilgrims from Kishtwar district headquarter to move further up from Chisoti to Darshan Gate, reducing the hike to some two kilometres. “Even then many devotees stayed back in Chisoti to offer prayers at the temples,” Chand said.However, while the pilgrimage has resumed, a sense of loss, grief and deep betrayal prevails as the festivities of yesteryears have been replaced in the village by the void of death and destruction wreaked by the flood. With the glacial melt expected to accelerate in the coming summer, it is uncertain how the river which divides Chisoti into two is going to behave. Like most of the destroyed houses, the bridge has not been built so far, forcing the vehicles to undertake a difficult river-crossing.A foundation stone laid by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha. Photo: Imran Shah.The only prominent sign of fresh construction in the village is a foundation stone that was laid by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha in November last year for a rehabilitation project which has been taken up by a BJP-linked NGO.Despite repeated texts and phone calls, deputy commissioner of Kishtwar Pankaj Kumar and LoP Sharma could not be reached for their comment on the reconstruction efforts in Chisoti.For some, the August 14 flood was a forewarning that the significance of Chisoti in the annual Machail Yatra could well fade into insignificance. “The pilgrims don’t stop in the village now because there is an atmosphere of fear. I think if the river doesn’t change course again in the next four to five years, only then there are chances that things would change for good,” Chand, who lost his brother and sister-in-law in the tragedy, said. Imran Shah contributed reporting from Kishtwar.