Deaths in Ganderbal Power Canal Revive Years-Old Fencing Demands, Safety Concerns

Ganderbal,  KNT: The deaths of a 19-year-old youth and a girl in the power canal at Thune in Kangan have brought renewed attention to long-standing demands for fencing and safety measures along the Upper Sindh Hydro Power Project canal network in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.

The two persons died on Monday after they were reportedly seen entering or jumping into the power canal at Thune. Police, SDRF personnel and local residents launched a search operation, following which both bodies were recovered. Officials said the circumstances leading to the incident were being ascertained.

The latest deaths come after repeated reports over the years of people drowning or bodies being recovered from different stretches of the power canal in the Kangan-Ganderbal belt.

In April 2025, a 17-year-old boy, Junaid Ahmad Khattana, was reported to have accidentally slipped into the power canal at Haknar Fraw. His body was subsequently recovered after a search operation involving police, SDRF and local volunteers.

Two days later, the body of a young girl who had gone missing from the Haknar-Gund area was recovered from the canal near Forbay-Fraw. Police initiated an investigation, while residents demanded protective fencing along both sides of the canal from Kulan to Sumbal.

In May 2025, the body of 45-year-old Bashir Ahmad Raina, who had gone missing from Mammer, was recovered downstream at Kawcherwan. Residents at the time told reporters that the canal had remained without fencing for decades and urged the authorities to install safety measures.

The safety issue had also been raised before the recent deaths. In July 2024, residents and delegations at a government public darbar in Ganderbal specifically sought fencing of the power canal in the Kangan area among their demands

In September 2024, residents of Kangan constituency again demanded fencing along the power canal from Rayil to Sumbal

The Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation as per the news agency Kashmir News Trust also floated a tender in August 2024 for chain-link fencing at the headworks and barbed-wire fencing of specified portions of the Sumbal Link Canal under USHP-II Kangan. The estimated cost of the work was Rs 25 lakh, with a stipulated completion period of 45 days. The official tender record identifies the specific sections covered by the work.

Another JKSPDC tender issued in November 2025 was for chain-link/barbed-wire fencing in the jurisdiction of the Wangath Link Sub-Division, with an estimated value of Rs 5 lakh.

In April 2026, the issue reached the J&K Legislative Assembly. Kangan MLA Mian Mehar Ali raised the issue of the non-fenced power canal in the Kangan constituency and called for the canals to be properly fenced to prevent accidents and untoward incidents.

JKSPDC subsequently processed another tender in May-June 2026 titled “Securing Headworks, beat quarter and canal … Barbed wire chain link fencing.” The tender was valued at Rs 10 lakh and had a 45-day work period. Five bids were listed, with Syed Salah Ud Din Malik shown as the L1 bidder after financial evaluation on June 4. The publicly available tender record, however, does not show an award against the tender.

The tender record does not establish that the proposed work was completed, nor does the available material establish whether the Thune stretch where Monday’s deaths occurred was covered under any of the fencing works.

The history of the canal also includes cases where the circumstances were not immediately clear. In September 2025, the death of Kangan youth Ajaz Ahmed Rather was initially treated as a possible drowning after his body was found in the Power Canal. Police later said their investigation established that he had allegedly been strangled and his body dumped into the canal, and two persons were arrested in the case.

Locals had been raising the fencing issue even earlier. A 2022 report quoted inhabitants saying that large portions of the canal from Rayil through Gund, Fraw, Haknar, Sumbal and Kangan remained without fencing and that several people and animals had drowned in the canal over the years

With the latest deaths at Thune, the issue of fencing and safety along the canal has again come under public attention. The available procurement records establish that fencing and canal-security works have been tendered at different locations, while the April 2026 Assembly record shows that the elected representative from Kangan had raised the non-fencing issue months before the latest incident. The extent to which the tendered works were executed, and whether vulnerable stretches including Thune have been covered, could not be established from the publicly available records examined by the news agency Kashmir News Trust. [KNT]