Chisoti, Kishtwar: A poem on the role of “greedy humans” in environmental catastrophes unfolding in the Himalayas was rehearsed at a school in Chisoti of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district in the days before the climate disaster rampaged through the village.A video obtained by The Wire shows Suman, a Class 4 student, reciting the poem during her rehearsals for August 15 celebrations at the government-run middle school in the disaster-affected Chisoti village.The celebrations could not take place as the flash flood swept through the village on August 14, killing more than hundred civilians, mostly Hindu pilgrims on the way to the Mata Machail Yatra, along with 13 locals and some security personnel.cloudburst-hit Chisoti village, in Kishtwar district, Jammu and Kashmir. Photo: Jehangir AliOf the deceased, only 65 have been identified so far. Several dozens were injured in the tragedy.The 28-second video, which was circulated in the WhatsApp groups of Kishtwar district’s school education department, shows Suman standing in what appears to be a classroom of the only school in Chisoti and extending greetings to her teachers and fellow students before reciting the poem.“Hey manav ab tu sudhar ja, abi iss laalach ko chhod de; dharti maa ko samaj, prakriti se rishta jod de (Oh humans, mend your ways, leave this greed; respect Mother Earth and connect with nature),” Suman recited during the rehearsal in a high-pitched voice, waving her right arm, pointing her index finger.She continued: “Warna ye prakriti nahin ruk payegi aur tu jhulas jaayega; vilukt hote prajati ki hai lagegi, vilukt hote prajati ki hai lagegi; Phir tera number aayega, tu bhi vilukt hojaye (Otherwise nature will not stop and you will be scorched; the curse of vanishing species will descend, the curse of vanishing species will descend; then your turn will come, you will vanish too)”. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Wire (@thewirein)An aerial image of Chisoti village before the devastating flash flood struck on August 14, released by the Indian Army.Hukum Chand, a teacher at the school that escaped the nature’s fury on August 14, said that he found the poem online. He said that the young girl student was selected for one of the many events, including on the environment, which were planned by the school as part of the Independence Day celebrations.‘Little did we know’“Before reciting the poem, she was going to deliver a short speech on the floods in Dharali, Mandi, Katra and other parts of the country. Little did we know that our village was going to be next,” said Chand, a resident of Gulabgarh in Kishtwar who was present in the school on the day of the flood.The high Himalayan mountains in the lap of which Chisoti is located some 300 km from J&K’s capital Srinagar force moisten monsoon winds to rise quickly which is known as orographic lifting in atmospheric science.When these moist winds meet colder air from western disturbances, they form large clouds which can’t hold the extra moisture for long. This often results in a sudden release of rain over a small area, a phenomenon known as cloudburst.According to environmental experts and scientists, the Himalayan region which borders the north-eastern parts of Jammu and Kashmir, including Kishtwar, has been significantly impacted by climate change which has made cloudbursts more frequent and intense.Professor A.S. Jasrotia, who heads the department of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System at the University of Jammu, said that the significant rise in extreme rainfall events of the western Himalayas was especially turning Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir into areas of emerging hotspots of cloudburst-induced multi-componental and multifaceted disasters.A catastrophic cloudburst in July 2013 triggered devastating floods and landslides that killed more than 6,000 people in Kedarnath, Uttarakhand, in one of the country’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami.On July 8, 2022, a cloudburst near the Amarnath cave shrine in the higher reaches of Pahalgam killed at least 16 pilgrims while 40 more went missing in the aftermath of the flash floods that later swept through the basecamp of the pilgrimage.A local woman sits by a damaged area as search and rescue operation underway after the recent flash flood triggered by cloudburst, at Chisoti village, in Kishtwar district, Jammu and Kashmir. Photo: PTIFollowing the devastation, experts had urged the government to restrict the number of daily pilgrims and shorten the duration of the pilgrimage to the cave shrine in the Himalayas. They also warned against the use of fossil-fuel driven appliances and opening community kitchens in the eco-fragile region and suggested serving dry food to the pilgrims.However, despite grave human, environmental and economic costs, the administration in Jammu and Kashmir seems determined to adopt unsustainable practices that have been criticised in the past and led to catastrophes.Chisoti is a remote village deep in the Himalayas which falls on the route to Mata Machail Yatra, the third most popular Hindu pilgrimage in J&K after Vaishno Devi Yatra and Amarnath Yatra.For the first time since 1980s, when the government is believed to have started inviting people to undertake the arduous pilgrimage to the temple of Maa Chandi, a Hindu diety, in Machail area of Kishtwar, a major basecamp was set up in Chisoti this year along with a community kitchen to cater to the pilgrims.When the tragedy struck on August 14, more than two lakh pilgrims had already undertaken the pilgrimage. An official in Kishtwar district administration said that for the first time, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were brought to the village in vehicles.“Nature couldn’t take it anymore perhaps and it decided to wreck the pilgrimage,” the official said, adding that cloudbursts with limited damage and no human casualties have been reported near the village in the recent past.According to an official in Indian Meteorological Department, Chisoti received less than 20 mm rainfall which he said doesn’t explain the magnitude of the catastrophe in the form of a 40-60 feet column of water that came crashing down into the village on August 14.An overflowing Chenab in Chisoti village, Kishtwar district, Jammu and Kashmir. Photo: Jehangir AliA study into the 2013 Kedarnath floods found that greenhouse gases and aerosol particles in the atmosphere, likely released by cooking stoves, fossil-fuel powered generators and other human activities, was responsible for more than half of the rainfall that triggered the catastrophic event in the Himalayas.Cloudbursts are becoming more frequent in the Himalayas because of a mix of natural and human-induced factors. “One of the main reasons is climate change which is driven by human activity. As temperatures rise, the air holds more moisture which increases the chances of sudden and very heavy rainfall,” Jasrotia told The Wire.While officials are analysing the atmospheric causes of the flood in Chisoti, Jasrotia referred to the atmospheric phenomenon of teleconnection in which the change in temperature in one part of the world affects areas in a different geographical location hundreds of kilometres away.The Himalayas, he said, are the most vulnerable to teleconnection with rivers, seas and oceans.“Cloudbursts have been happening in the Himalayas for quite some time, particularly in Kishtwar, but they are not reported because they occur in uninhabited areas,” he said, adding that restricting the pilgrimages may not be an effective strategy to prevent loss of human lives.“A cloudburst can strike on any day of the week or month. Instead, a complete ban should be imposed on the construction of residential and commercial structures 100-200 metres from the riverbanks of water bodies especially in the mountainous regions and in areas which are at risk of mudslides, landslides and boulder falls to prevent such tragedies”, he said.