During the month of February, we contributed three truckloads of clothing and helped 752 families in four districts. (Estimated almost 4,000 people). This aid also helped 144 teenagers in local orphanages.

Villages are trapped as avalanches bury roads and buildings unexpectedly. Some of the heavy snowfall from early

SRINAGAR, India, March 3 (AFP) - Indian army teams headed Thursday to Kashmir villages cut off for a month by huge snowdrifts as officials said they feared the death toll from avalanches and cold could exceed the nearly 300 reported.

The army rescue parties, travelling in groups of 10 or 12 people, were struggling on foot through snowdrifts 15 feet (five meters) deep to reach the isolated villages, reeling under the heaviest snow in two decades.

"We've sent rescue teams to these inaccessible areas. They're travelling by foot as they are having to clear

The highway snakes through rugged Himalayan peaks in the south including the Pir Panjal range which was swept by avalanches that killed more than 250 people in the past two weeks.

The stretch linking the Kashmir Valley, including Srinagar, with the winter capital Jammu was open only for a few days in February as snowfall blocked the road at high elevations stranding