Villagers face loss, destruction after floods in Jammu's Pargwal

DAys after floodwaters swallowed their homes and william claude dukenfield, the villagers of Pargwal take the air shoeless through and through gunk and rubble, searching not just for belongings but for pieces of memory in the mud-filled farmlands that stretch to the International Border.On Tuesday last, the Chenab river burst into their hamlet with a roar, breaking walls, carrying away animals and household items, and leaving behind a suffocating carpet of mud. The villagers were scattered across the fields, searching for whatever the river had not claimed.Pargwal village, near Akhnoor, one of 27 border hamlets, is situated between the border with Pakistan and the mighty Chenab river.For two days, floodwaters stood up to the first storey of houses, drowning shops, granaries and livestock.Over 3,000 people were evacuated by rescue teams, but the damage remains everywhere. Broken walls lean dangerously, doors creak in mud, and fields -- once green with paddy -- now lie under thick layers of silt.Subash Chander bent over in the muddy waters, his hands trembling, as he pulled out their only surviving old almirah half a kilometre from his house with the help of his brothers.It was a wedding gift, still locked, holding inside not just cash and jewellery but the weight of memory. “I thought I would never see it again. It is a piece of memory for us,” he whispered, brushing mud off its corners.Chander recalled the fearful moment when the flood struck and said, “We had a narrow escape as the water gushed into our house suddenly. We rushed to save children and elders first. A wall was damaged on the back side due to the impact of water."It was all happening in front of our eyes. We could not save anything except our lives. Now, when we see our houses ruined, we cannot even eat," he added.The villagers feel hapless about their fate as most of the houses suffered damage and are unsafe for living.With tears rolling down the cheeks of 62-year-old Puran Chand, he stood amid the rubble of his destroyed home.“We have lost everything. Our house is damaged. We are a family of nine. Where do we live now? I am 62 years old. I have seen this much water for the first time in my life", he said.The family, which mostly has daily-wage labourers, had built their home only five years ago after saving every penny.The floodwaters had inundated houses up to the first storey for almost 48 hours, damaging most of them as well as shops and other structures.It has not only hit their housing needs but also their economy, which is mostly dependent on agriculture and is now suffering huge damage.For Sharda Devi, the floodwaters rose up to her neck as she struggled to pull her family out. “It was like a wall of water hitting us. We lost everything, even our animals," she said, adding that in 15 years of marriage, she had never witnessed such a calamity."Even our paddy fields are buried under a thick sheet of mud," she said.Villagers said that they have not witnessed such intensity of floods in the area, as was witnessed in 1984 and 1992 when the village was severely battered by the Chenab waters, causing large-scale damage.They said that the Chenab, which was flowing much above the evacuation alarm, inundated the entire village within minutes."The flow of water was very fast. It washed away whatever material, big or small, was lying in our houses and deposited it in vast chunks of land and agricultural areas. The connecting road was washed away, and the village got cut from the rest of the district," teacher Omarkar Singh said.Children, too, have not been spared. Pooja Devi said her children lost all their school books to the floods. “They keep asking for books, but we have nothing left to give. Once schools reopen after a week-long closure due to floods, no children, I feel, will have books as they are lost to floods,” she said quietly.Nearby, Karma Devi stood over her refrigerator, dragged out from a heap of sludge a hundred metres away. The flood had torn through her home, bringing down a wall and washing away all that lay inside. “It is heavy,” she said, “but lighter than the emptiness of my house.”“This is not just about homes,” said Rattan Singh, a farmer staring at his ruined land. “It is about our survival. Agriculture is our only economy. Now it is buried.”For Pargwal, the floodwaters may have receded, but the struggle has only begun. Every almirah pulled from the mud, every utensil recovered, is not just an object saved — it is a piece of memory, a piece of dignity, wrested back from the river.