The chief of India's northern state of Jammu and Kashmir visited the flood-ravaged Ladakh region to oversee relief and rescue operations. Floods have caused extensive damage in the region destroying homes, buildings and telephone lines.

On Monday, the chief of India's Jammu and Kashmir state visited the flood-ravaged Ladakh region for the second time to oversee relief and rescue operations there.

He assured people that essential goods and health care services will be supplied to those affected by the floods.

[Omar Abdullah, Chief of State, Jammu and Kashmir]: (male, English)
"We have been able to pull people out from areas that had been affected by the cloudburst. Now, at the same time, obviously, our effort is to reconnect areas that were cut off, bridges, roads, that need to be connected so that we can begin to get information from the outlying areas, supply relief materials.”

The cloudburst has caused extensive damage in the Ladakh region where houses are traditionally built out of mud.

[Omar Abdullah, Chief of State, Jammu and Kashmir]: (male, English)
“Obviously those homes, which have been completely destroyed by this, they need the basic necessities to survive, basic quantity of foodstuff and things like that. So, now our priority is to get this material, rations, blankets, utensils, clothes, stuff like that to these families as soon as possible."

Telephone towers and government buildings have been flattened, cutting off communication to the area.

More than 6,000 soldiers are conducting rescue and relief work in the region.

Indian Air Force helicopters have airdropped and distributed food, drinking water and other aid materials to remote villages that have been completely cut off from the rest of the state.

Media reports say that around 147 people have been declared dead so far and nearly 500 people are still missing.