Official count lists 82 houses as damaged in North Sikkim flurry of slides

MANGAN, 30 Sept: The latest flurry of landslides which began collapsing across North Sikkim on 21 September and continued for almost another week, the situation has just about stabilized a bit now, apart from 21 lives it claimed in the district and the extensive damage it caused to the road network, has, as per official data, damage 82 houses in the district. The road network is in tatters in the district, the electricity and water supply severely hit and the 21 lives lost – 20 in the Chungthang sub-division and one fatality due to a landslide reported from Kusung village in Upper Dzongu.
Landslide damage to houses has been reported from three Blocks – Chungthang, Passingdang and Mangan.
As per data compiled by the SDM Office, Chungthang, twenty houses have sustained landslide damage in the Chungthang sub-division, where 20 lives were also lost and livestock also killed. Also damaged by a landslide is the kitchen shed of Bop Primary School here. 80% of damaged houses are kutcha houses.
The data from Mangan BAC reveals that 52 houses have been damaged by landslides at villages under this BAC.  Out of 52, seven houses are recorded as fully damaged.
The figures for BAC Passingdang in Dzongu posts the number of houses damaged at 10 - at Kusong, Tingvong and Lingkoo along with one abandoned school at Kusong.
What is also recorded is that major damage has been to cultivated land.
The district administration has released immediate ex-gratia as per norms, staggering the compensation among fully damaged, severely and partially damaged categories.
Officials further inform that several under construction CMRHM houses have also been damaged.  The BDO Dzongu, Dr. SR Lepcha, informs that under construction CMRHM houses have been extensively damaged in the Rabong-Hee Gyathang area. Meanwhile, the road to Tingvong in Upper Dzongu is expected to be cleared for traffic any day now with restoration work underway full swing by the Roads & Bridges Deptt.