The Rangma Range Horror

WANGCHUK BHUTIA
CHUNGTHANG, 24 Sept:  “It was a horrific night as around 50 of us [86 RCC staff] spent the entire night huddled inside vehicles, too fearful to proceed anywhere since we did not know which areas were safe and unable to venture out since it was pitch dark and dangerous,” recollects Bhupendra Kumar, of the BRO personnel caught in the landslide which tore through the 86 Road Construction Company headquarter at Rangma late on Friday evening. Twelve lives, including wives and two children of BRO officials, were lost to the incident that night. Eight bodies have been recovered so far.
As for the camp, it is lost. The damage too extensive, and the location too dangerous to be resettled.
The camp, around 4 km ahead of Chungthang towards Lachen, is the worst hit by the 21 September series of landslides. The inundation here was brought down by the Darek Khola which flows through the camp and which broke its banks at 7 p.m. on Friday. Apart from the lives lost, standing infrastructure has sustained extensive damage – two tipper trucks, one Ashok Leyland truck, one 407 carrier, two ambulances and an air compressor lie buried under the debris.
A cluster of houses along with the GREF office and other staff quarters have been washed away. Offcials inform that office documents have also been lost.
Meanwhile, the BRO personnel have been shifted to the ITBP camp nearby for present.
OC 86 RCC, Maj. Mukesh Kumar, while speaking to NOW! said, “We have not ascertained the extent of damage to the road and have been engaged in relief and rescue for the past couple of days. That said, we have already begun restoration works at some of the places.”