Srinagar, Aug. 18 -- Shahnawaz still remembers the weight of the child in his arms.

The night was cold, the air smelled of mud and floodwater, and the cries around him mixed with the roar of the mountain stream gone wild.

He had waded into the torrent as part of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), searching for survivors after a sudden cloudburst ripped through Chasoti village in Kishtwar's Padder area on August 14.

Amid the wreckage, he found the boy, drenched and alone. The parents were missing. Shahnawaz lifted him, pressed him close, and kept walking.

That night, as India prepared to mark Independence Day, Kishtwar was drowning. A burst of rain from the skies above had turned into a furious flood, sweeping through homes, cam...