Pilgrims have borne the brunt of nature’s fury in Jammu for the second time in two weeks, raising questions about the dangerous trend of promoting Hindu pilgrimages through perilous uphill terrain, ignoring safety warnings and fragile mountain ecology.

The toll from Tuesday’s Vaishno Devi landslide has crossed 35, of whom 32 were pilgrims. Days earlier, 67 people, mostly pilgrims, died in the Kishtwar flash flood while dozens remain missing.

An India Meteorological Department update said Jammu and Udhampur had witnessed record 24-hour rainfalls till 8.30am on Wednesday. Jammu registered 296mm against the previous record of 272.6mm — witnessed on August 9, 1973 — and Udhampur received 629.4mm, nearly double the previous high of 342mm on July 31, 2019.

Major rivers in both the Jammu and Kashmir regions flowed above the danger mark on Wednesday, with floodwater entering several localities in Srinagar, Anantnag and some Jammu districts.

The rain has disrupted mobile and Internet connectivity and damaged or destroyed houses and bridges.

Chief minister Omar Abdullah said he had never felt “this disconnected” since the terrible floods of 2014 and the clampdown of 2019 that accompanied the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

The pilgrimage to the Vaishno Devi shrine, visited by millions every year, was suspended when the mountainside caved in on Tuesday and rocks rolled down, catching the pilgrims unawares.

Authorities struggled to extricate the dead and rescue the injured from the debris. Apart from the dead, around two dozen people were injured.

The promotion of Hindu pilgrimages has been a priority with lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha’s Delhi-controlled administration since the constitutional changes of 2019.

The back-to-back disasters that hit the Machail Yatra in Kishtwar and the Vaishno Devi Yatra in Reasi have highlighted the risks of such difficult journeys in mountainous terrains, made more fragile by a surge in development projects related to pilgrimages or infrastructure-building.

The administration had in the past rebuffed the concerns and gone ahead with a spate of development projects, including the building of a road to the Amarnath shrine.

Omar on Wednesday chastised the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine board, helmed by Sinha, for allowing the Yatra despite a weather warning. He mentioned no names but asked whether it wasn’t possible to avoid the casualties.

“We had received the warnings about worsening weather days in advance. Why were they (pilgrims) on track? Why were they not stopped or put at safe places? We will have to talk about it later,” he told reporters in Jammu, where he is monitoring the flood mitigation efforts.

Omar accused Sinha’s administration of failing to learn the lessons of the 2014 floods and posted pictures of the damage suffered by the crucial Tawi bridge in Jammu.

“Two photographs from 2014 floods & two from 2025 floods. Almost the same spot & very similar damage. What if anything did we learn from the 2014 floods? What corrective steps were taken in the last 11 years?” he asked.

“What flood mitigation measures were implemented since Oct 2014? These are all questions that the elected government will seek answers to because the last 48 hours have been a shocking eye opener.”

Many prominent voices, including some of the usual supporters of the central government, have asked why the pilgrimages were allowed despite weather warnings.

Jammu activist Manu Khajuria said nothing had been learnt from the Machail disaster.

“Where does the accountability rest? Why was the Yatra not suspended when extreme weather alerts had been issued earlier?” she wrote on X.

“Why is the commercialisation of Shri Vaishno Devi Mata yatra, tampering with the extremely sensitive Trikuta hill, is going on unabated without any consideration of ecological sustainability, rest aside faith?”

She asked: “Are Hindu lives cheap and Jai of Sanatan Dharma just for rhetorics?”

Union minister Jitendra Singh defended the administration and blamed the Vaishno Devi tragedy on the heaviest rain in “99 years”.

Officials said the home ministry had deployed 17 National Disaster Response Force teams for large-scale operations, with the CRPF, BSF and other central agencies assisting in the shrine complex and other places.

They said the historic Madhopur bridge, which connects Jammu and Kashmir with Punjab and where Jana Sangh leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee was arrested in 1953 to prevent him entering the then state, had suffered damage.