Shipgyer resident treks across slides to convey fears of cut-off villages

GANGTOK, 21 Sept: Sonam Lepcha of Shipgyer, trekked the treacherous Shipgyer-Mayong route to reach Mangan yesterday and travelled onwards to Gangtok to bring news of the earthquake devastated regions of Dzongu and worried by the rumours they heard of the situation in Gangtok. Relieved that Gangtok escaped the scale of devastation which visited North Sikkim, he carries word that his village and Rammam nearby have suffered severe damage and remain precariously placed. With no telecom network and disrupted transport, the village is completely cut off.
He informed that the road leading to Shipgyer has developed many cracks and the village as a whole lies in a sorry state with the school, monastery and the PHC heavily damaged.
Since the night of the disaster, many of the people have been taking shelter in a temporary refuge at a higher location.
Since the area lies above the tunnel region of the Teesta Stage III hydel project, the villagers have requested that no heavy vehicles of the company or private owners be allowed to ply on this stretch even after the road is opened. They fear that the road is still extremely fragile and further disturbance on it by heavy vehicle traffic will imperil their villages even more.
Another worry of the villagers is that if heavy or continuous rain occurs, the entire village may get washed away. This leaves the repair works precious little time to stablise the zone, Mr. Lepcha points out, highlighting that if restoration is not completed before the next monsoons, the villages cannot be saved.
Till the time that Mr Lepcha was there, no rescue or relief teams had been able to reach the village. A team of army personnel was expected to reach Saffo and Rammam by Wednesday evening.