Landslide Mayhem up North

Jhoras break banks around Chungthang, pour landslides claiming 20 lives

The devastation at the GREF camp at Rangma Range above Chungthang. The Barey Khola broke its banks here on Friday evening and poured tonnes of debris on the camp, claiming 12 lives and burying two tipper trucks, two ambulances, one ‘407’ carrier, one Ashok Leyland Truck and one compressor of the BRO apart from tearing through built up property here. Photographs from two angles are displayed here to reinforce the scale of devastation.

Pegong near Chungthang where the khola, the flood scars of which are visible in pic, tore through the ITBP camp here claiming four lives on Friday evening.

Kalapathar above Chungthang where on life was lost of the Friday flurry of slides. In the background is the Teesta Stage II dam site where three lives were lost.

WANGCHUK BHUTIA

CHUNGTHANG, 23 Sept: A litter of landslides peeled off the hills in and around this North Sikkim sub-divisional town of Friday evening as a series of jhoras broke their banks and unloaded tonnes of debris on ill-fated habitations below. While the entire district has been severely hit by landslides, the four major slides around Chungthang have collectively claimed 20 lives, with the flash flood on the Barey Khola flowing through the 86 RCC camp of the Border Roads Organisation at Rangma Range 4 kms beyond Chungthang towards Lachen alone claiming 12 lives.

While the landslide at Rangma Range is reported to have occurred at around 7 PM on Friday, the one at the ITBP camp at Pegong, 3 km short of Chungthang, was reported between 5-6 PM, Kalapathar near Chungthang at 5 PM and the right bank of the Teesta Stage III project site at around the same time.

Among the casualties are 4 ITBP personnel at Pegong, 12 BRO personnel at Rangma Range, one at Kalapathar and three employees of the General Mechanical Workers Company at the Teesta Stage III dam site.

Two injured persons from General Mechanical Workers Company, Rajveer Singh and Rajdeep Singh were rescued on Saturday morning but unfortunately, one succumbed to his injuries while being flown to Gangtok yesterday. 

Of the dead bodies recovered so far, five have been identified: Bid Bahadur at Kalapathar, three bodies from Rangma Range identified as Sanjay Gurung [resident of Nepal], Montu [resident of Uttar Pradesh], Rohit [resident of Darjeeling] and a JCO of GREF.

Meanwhile at Rangma Range, six bodies have been recovered thus far. Those feared killed at this location are: SK Sikhiya with family, Asstt. Somu Kernal, JE Administrative, JE Civil, NT2 Raj Narayan, Manger Ram, Siddhiram and family.

Two persons Bishvanath Ram [resident of Bihar] and Amarjeet Singh [resident of Punjab] are still missing from General Mechanical Workers Company.

Four ITBP personnel have also been reported missing at Pegong where one RCC building and two Kutcha houses have also been damaged.

There has been substantial damage to the infrastructure and property as well with six houses and one ICDS centre washed out at Kalapathar. These houses belong to Nedup Bhutia, Pratima, Ram Kumar, Payching, Raju Tamang, Rojer Rai. 

As the slide destroyed their houses, the victims could not save any of their belongings.

“We have not been able to save our belongings inside the house. All our earnings, our hard work has been wiped out by the slide”, said Kipa Bhutia of Kalapathar whose house has also been washed away.

At Rangma range, kutcha houses belonging to Serkay Baidar, Bishnu Chettri, Gyaltsen Lepcha, Yangtse Bhutia, Damber Bahadur, Passang Diki, Suman Rai and Posi Sherpa have been damaged.

Similarly, the SSA kitchen shed at Bop Primary school which is 4 kms away from Chungthang towards Lachung has also been damaged and all the utensils and other belongings inside the kitchen have been washed away. 

The landslide also swept away three steel bridges across the Lachung Chu where around 60 workers of SEW company were stranded and evacuated on Saturday. Some of the workers were evacuated by a team of locals and administration headed by SDM Chungthang, Raj Yadav. 

The relief and rescue work is being continuously carried out by teams headed by SDM Chungthang with Zilla Adhyakshya North Khamsoong Lepcha, BDO Chungthang Jigmee Wangchuk Bhutia, SDPO Chungthang, GREF personnel, ITBP and Army personnel, Panchayat members headed by Lendup Lepcha and the local people.

MLA Lachen-Mangan TW Lepcha, DC North TW Khangsarpa and Sr SP North BK Tamang also visited the affected areas.

Water supply and electricity supply lines have also been badly damaged. At Chungthang, drinking water is being provided through tankers by Teesta Urja. Meanwhile, the affected families were provided with Rs. 10,000 each from the SDM Office today as ex-gratia payment for damaged houses under NC fund. The SDM office has also set up a relief camp at the Gurudwara in Chungthang for the affected families.

Apart from these, vehicles and machineries of GREF and SEW company have also been damaged. The Charten ward of Chungthang GPU has been cut off due to a steel bridge being damaged.

The SDM Chungthang, Raj Yadav while speaking to NOW! informed that the administration is focusing on relief and rescue at present and added that the buffer stock of rice is in place for Chungthang sub-division which will last for at least 15 days. He further informed that kerosene will be provided to every household Sunday. 

The Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority team headed by Kesang Nima Bhutia is also engaged in relief work and has provided tent, rain coat, gumboot, torch light etc. to the affected people.

Four of the recovered dead bodies were cremated here at Chungthang after post mortem at Chungthang hospital. The cremation was undertaken with the help of panchayat and local people.