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Military airlifts flood victims in Sikkim; toll 89
Army helicopters began evacuating stranded tourists in Sikkim after flash floods caused by a glacial lake outburst flood devastated the area.
Army helicopters began the arduous process of evacuating stranded tourists in Sikkim on Monday, five days after flash floods caused by a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) devastated the hill state and parts of West Bengal and inclement weather hampered rescue operations. The death toll from the disaster rose to 89.
Overall, the army has compiled a list of around 2,000 people that continue to be marooned in the state, with 493 tourists and nine locals evacuated by the force’s Mi-17 and Chinook helicopters, the Sikkim land revenue and disaster management said in a statement on Monday evening. Tourists were airlifted from Lachung, Chaten and Lachen in north Sikkim. The operations came on a day when Sikkim chief minister Prem Singh Tamang held a meeting with chief of army staff Manoj Pande and other senior officials in state capital Gangtok, senior state officials said.
Three more bodies were on Monday found in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, where several corpses have been carried downstream by the Teesta river. “Till Sunday, 43 bodies were recovered from Jalpaiguri. Three more have been found in the last 24 hours,” said Khandbahale Umesh Ganpat, Jalpaiguri district superintendent of police.
In Sikkim too, senior officials said, four more bodies were found on Monday. “There were 32 bodies found inside the territory of Sikkim till Sunday. Four more have been recovered since then,” said Bikash Basnet, press secretary to chief minister Tamang.
Over the past five days, central agencies, army personnel and state authorities have been involved in frantic search and rescue operations, after flash floods caused by the GLOF in the Lhonak Lake caused the Teesta to swell, damaging human habitation, the Bardang army camp, several hydel projects and arterial roads such as National Highway 10, crucial for communication in a mountain state.
Lieutenant colonel Mahendra Rawat, chief public relations officer said in a statement on Monday that the army has prepared a list of stranded people at Chaten, Lachen, Lachung and Thangu in north Sikkim. This list, which includes 63 foreign nationals, will now be used to facilitate food, medical aid, accommodation and telephones till the evacuation process is complete, Rawat said.
Soldiers of the Trishakti Corps have also been able to move past difficult terrain and have reached the isolated village of Rabom to the north-west of Chungthang to rescue a batch of between 150 and 200 civilians while the army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel have also built a log bridge over Lachen Chu connecting Chungthang to Pegong, the statement said.
Meanwhile a six member inter-ministerial team sent by the Union government visited the affected areas of Golitar, Singtam and Dikchu in Gangtok on Monday. The team will assess the ground situation and recommend short and long term restoration work, Sikkim officials said.
The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba also met on Monday, with the members briefed by Sikkim chief secretary VB Pathak. Gauba said that the evacuation of people should be the immediate priority for agencies, both state and central, that are working on the ground, and the union government would offer all support possible. Pathak said that the weather conditions had improved on Monday, with evacuation processes now in full swing, and that the weather forecast would stay favourable for the next three days.
Pathak however said that several affected areas had been completely cut off because of the destruction of infrastructure, and with the permanent construction of new motorable roads and bridges a long term process, bailey bridges were being constructed for the time being. He added that the state government had corresponded with Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman S Somanath, and had requested for surveillance over the South Lhonak and Shako Chu lakes to prevent any further calamities.
