‘I just want to find them’: deadly cloudbursts devastate Kashmir’s mountain communities

Increasingly erratic weather patterns due to climate change mean people are losing homes, crops and livestock

As rain lashed the Pir Panjal mountains before dawn on 19 July, Haji Mohammad Latief stepped outside his home in Murrah, a remote mountain village in Indian-administered Kashmir. His daughter had asked him to move the family’s car to a safer place as the rain got heavier.

“I had only just parked it,” Latief recalled. “When I turned around, I saw the water coming.” Minutes later, a cloudburst sent mud, boulders and water crashing down the hillside.