E-Paper
‘Darkness and chaos’: Sikkim flood victims share ordeal; rescue op halted
The Sikkim government has warned people that explosives and ammunition may be found along the banks of the Teesta River after an ammunition depot of the army in north Sikkim was affected due to flash floods
Rangpo: “Don’t go there. There may be explosives underneath the silt,” warned 34-year-old Bharat Mohanty, a resident of Rangpo in east Sikkim’s Pakyong district, pointing towards a large vacant land along the banks of the River Teesta.
Locals said that what appeared to be a playground, actually used to be a slum comprising dozens of houses. It was surrounded by multiple four-to-five-storey buildings on three sides and the River Teesta flowing on one side.
The entire colony now plunges into darkness every night as there has been no power supply since the flood hit.
“The slum is now totally buried under 10-12 feet of silt and debris brought in by the flood waters. The muddy water and debris also gushed into the ground-floor rooms of all the buildings and filled them up,” said Mohanty, who lived on the ground floor of one of the buildings.
A few cars and an earth-moving machine, buried under the silt with just their roofs showing, gave an inkling of what was underneath the silt and debris.
It was around 2am on Wednesday that 23-year-old Sidhant Chetri, another resident of IBM colony, as the area is popularly known to locals, heard some frantic whistles and people shouting.
“I just woke up and sat on my bed. Somebody banged on my door. As soon as I got down from the bed I could see that my room was under ankle-deep water. More water was seeping inside. A neighbour told me that a flood was coming. I woke up my roommate and rushed out on the road, located at a higher elevation. Within minutes the flood water covered everything,” said Chetri.
A flash flood, triggered by a glacial lake outburst in north Sikkim late on Tuesday night. The wall of water, silt and debris made its way down the river slamming into the Teesta hydropower dam at Chungthang. The dam was washed away and the entire debris with huge volumes of water came rushing down the valley tearing through settlements and leaving at least 27 dead and at least 142 missing till Saturday evening.
The confirmed fatalities were all bodies found floating in the Teesta river in Bengal’s Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts – hundreds of kilometres from Mangan in North Sikkim, which bore the brunt of flash flooding.
Mangan in north Sikkim and Pakyong in east Sikkim were the two worst-hit districts. At least 17 persons, including eight army personnel, have died in Pakyong alone while 38 are still missing.
The Sikkim government has warned people that explosives and ammunition may be found along the banks of the Teesta River after an ammunition depot of the army in north Sikkim was affected due to flash floods.
At least three persons have already been killed in West Bengal when they tried to handle explosives found on the river’s bank. “Earlier this morning, some army personnel came and diffused a mortar that was found around two kilometres upstream,” said Mohanty.
A team from state disaster response force (SDRF) managed to reach Chungthang in Mangan district, which had remained cut off from the rest of the state since Wednesday.
“While the first team of SDRF personnel managed to reach Chungthang on Friday night, a second team reached this morning. Nearly 80% of the town has been damaged and most of the houses, shops and offices are buried under several feet of debris,” said a top official of the Sikkim government.
With roads damaged and communication lines snapped, Chunthang remained cut off from the rest of the state for the last three days. The SDRF team had to trek for several kilometres through treacherous hilly trails and then cross the Teesta River using a precarious suspension bridge to reach the town.
“There are no reports of any casualties from the town till now. Relief has finally reached Chunthang. We hope to restore communication lines within two to three days,” said a senior IAS officer posted in Mangan district.
Air-borne rescue operations could not be started even on Saturday because of bad weather conditions in the hills. At least three Mi-17 choppers are still waiting in Bagdogra and Lachen.
Meanwhile, with the Sikkim government opening alternate routes to reach West Bengal where people can take trains and flights, stranded people including tourists, workers and even students made a beeline to the plains. The NH-10 which formed the lifeline of the Himalayan state has been washed away by the flood at multiple places.
It usually takes 2-3 hours to reach Siliguri kin north Bengal from Ranpo via NH10. The alternative route through Lava and Gorubathan is taking double the time.
“I, my wife, and my daughter were stuck at Rangpo for three days. We had to put up in a hotel at a higher elevation after our house got inundated by the flood waters. That night was traumatic. All hell had broken loose. Finally, we could make it,” said Dinesh Chakraborty, who works in a private firm and was working on a railway project in east Sikkim.
Sikkim chief minister Prem Singh Tamang told the media that damages may run up to thousands of crores of rupees but exact details will be assessed only after a committee is formed for a survey.
Tamang, who visited affected areas at Rangpo in Pakyong district, said 25,000 people have been affected and 3,500 rescued from cut-off areas.
