Distraught 15 yr old son of missing GMWC worker makes desperate attempts to reach Chungthang

MANGAN, 25 Sept: A desperate 15 year old Adesh Kumar [pic alongside] trekked for the third day in a row today from Jang basti in Lower Tintek to Mangan in hopes of making it through to Chungthang. The litter of landslides beyond Mangan thwarted his efforts today as well. He needs to get to Chungthang because his father, Bishvanath Ram, is one of the people listed as missing and feared killed in the landslide which claimed three lives at the Teesta Stage III hydel project site at Chungthang on 21 Sept.
Adesh is the second son of Bishvanath Ram, an operator employed with the General Mechanical Workers Company at the hydel project site. While Bishvanath worked at Chungthang, his family – wife and four children – lived at Jang.
With his eldest brother bed-ridden with a fractured led at present, it fell on Adesh to accompany his mother to Mangan in hopes of making it to Chungthang, a journey they have been undertaking every day since Saturday. They have not made it beyond Mangan thus far. The family is in panic, distraught over their inability to get to Chungthang and traumatised by the news that has reached them of their father being among those missing and feared dead at Chungthang.
The weight of the sorrow and uncertainty is obviously too harsh for Adesh’s young age, but the situation is such that he has no option but to shoulder the responsibility of looking for his father and ascertaining his fate. His only hope of achieving closure is to get a lift on one of the helicopter sorties to make it to Chungthang and meet the concerned authorities there and find out about his father.

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.”

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.

Landslide claims one at Kusung

GANGTOK, 23 Sept: One person was killed in a landslide that occured in Kusung near Tingvong in Upper Dzongu, North Sikkim this afternoon while another has been injured.  The slide also damaged the CMRHM houses in the village, it is informed. A landslide also occurred in Shipgyer area where 4 log bridges have been washed away. It may be mentioned that Dzongu too is cut off from the rest of the district due to landslides.

Chungthang slide claims one

MANGAN, 21 Sept: A major landslide here this evening at Kalapathar near Chungthang [between Pegong and Chungthang] has claimed the life of a GREF Chowkidar.
The landslide washed away two houses belonging to Kipa Bhutia and a kutcha house in which the GREF Chowkidar was living.
The deceased was at home when the landslide peeled off the hill above and tore into his and the neighbouring homes and swept him away. Till the time of going to print, his body had still not been recovered.
Another major slide also occurred on the right bank of the Teesta at Chungthang damaging SEW company’s site [a sub-contractor of Teesta Urja which is developing the 1,200 MW Teesta Stage III Power Project in Chungthang]. The slide damaged the bridge across the river and also damaged the project site.  People on the right bank have been stranded owing to the bridge collapse.
The officials, panchayats and public have begun rescue operations but the continuous rainfall and shorter days were causing problems.

Landslides claim 5 in West Sikkim

ANAND OBEROI
GANGTOK, 25 Aug: Five people were killed in two incidents of landslides in West Sikkim last night.
A cloud burst triggered a massive landslide at Samathang village near Malbasey under Soreng Sub-division claiming the lives of three of a family at midnight.
The deceased are 36 year old Nirmaya Chettri, the wife of 45 year old Pratab Singh Chettri [the only survivor of the disaster], and her daughters, 16 year old Manju Chettri and 6 year old Anju Chettri. The family was wiped out when a landslide peeled away from the under-construction PMGSY road and collapsed on their house. The family was asleep at the time, and only the father escaped with his life.

West Sikkim landslide casualties condoled

GANGTOK, 26 June: The All Sikkim Democratic Labour Front has conveyed its ‘deep condolence’ on the death of labourers and local residents in the recent landslides in West Sikkim.
A meeting of the front chaired by its vice-president, BM Ramudamu, also observed a two-minute silence for the deceased yesterday.
Likewise, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha Sikkim-unit has also expressed its condolence during a meeting of the party held on Saturday. The meeting was chaired its Sikkim-unit president, Bhawani Pradhan.
The meeting also decided that the state-unit members will donate blood in the second week of July in the memory of to the victims. The state-unit has also decided to send a delegation to the affected area to meet the families of the victims and concerned state administration officials.