As Sikkim rescue op winds down, the search continues for local hero
Two weeks after flash floods in northern Sikkim, most rescue teams have called off their searches, except for a team of 31 rescuers who are still looking for one man, Dr Pema Norden Lachungpa. Lachungpa, a local hero, helped save over a hundred people when tragedy struck Chungthang district. He is missing after entering the dam to rescue trapped workers. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has stayed back to search for him.
Treacherous searches, hundreds of rescues and dozens of bodies — two weeks after flash floods wrecked much of northern Sikkim, disaster relief forces have started winding down their operations. With the flood waters receding, only to reveal homes, roads, schools and hospitals clothed in mud and silt, most rescue teams across the impacted regions have started calling off their searches. Except a team of 31 rescuers looking for one man — Dr Pema Norden Lachungpa, a local hero in Chungthang district.
The team, from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), has stayed back on the state government’s request to look for the 47-year-old doctor, who is said to have helped save over a hundred people, as tragedy struck Chungthang — one of the districts that bore the brunt of the devastating flash floods.
Lachungpa worked as the deputy general manager (medical) at Sikkim Urja Limited, the agency that operated the Chungthang dam, which was swept away by the Teesta river’s torrential waters early on October 4, after a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in the Lhonak Lake upstream.
NDRF commandant Gurminder Singh, who is leading the search and rescue in Sikkim said Lachungpa, who was at home at the time, headed down to the dam’s residential quarters and helped evacuate 102 people to safety. He then opened the dam’s floodgates to help minimise the damage from the onrushing waters.
“The state government requested us not to stop the search. Lachungpa entered the dam that night to rescue the other workers,” said Singh.
It wasn’t the first time Lachungpa had pulled off a heroic rescue.
“He also helped the local administration during the 2011 Sikkim earthquake,” said Singh.
The NDRF team is now working with hundreds of volunteers to hunt for the missing doctor. Their operation spans a vast area, including a network of tunnels filled with slush and a 21km-long riverbank, and they are all armed with a photograph of the doctor, with the caption “Where is Dr Pema Lachungpa, Sikkim’s unsung hero amid crisis” plastered across.
“We are trying our level best to find the doctor,” said Singh, who also headed India’s rescue operation after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria earlier this year.
A battalion of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Zanak, around 16,000 feet above Chungthang, first informed Lachungpa about water levels soaring in the regions above Chungtham dam.
“My brother wasn’t even at the dam site that night,” said Karma Norden (37), Lachungpa’s younger sister.
“He was in his quarter in the Company’s Colony. The minute he received the threat alert, he rushed out and alerted all the residents and ensured everyone was evacuated to safety,” she said.
In the days since the floods, at least 92 people have been confirmed dead, even as hordes of bodies continue to be recovered downstream in southern Sikkim, West Bengal and even Bangladesh.
Details of how the doctor reached the dam are unclear. As soon as the water levels rose in the river, electricity was snapped in the region. But what is clear is that the doctor did enter the dam in a bid to rescue the workers and minimise the impact.
Chungthang sub-divisional magistrate Kiran Thatal, who was one of the last people who is known to have spoken to Lachungpa said he received a call from the doctor around midnight.
“He told me he was going inside the dam to rescue the trapped workers. He said he could not leave them stranded there and would evacuate them,” said Thatal.
“I remember telling him to be careful. That was the last conversation we had,” he said.
Eventually, he sent at least 102 people to safety. He may even have saved many more.
“We know the chances of finding him are slim. But we would like to request the NDRF and the government to continue the search for my brother. We know time is running out,” said his sister. “It is not only our family, but thousands of other families whose lives he impacted through his work that want him alive.”