Gangtok, June 17: It is a herculean task for authorities in Sikkim to rescue tourists who are hit by landslides and other natural calamities.

The story gets repeated every now and then with rescue authorities having to redouble their efforts in rescuing tourists under adverse weather conditions.

Sikkim has been witnessing a huge surge of tourists. As per official data released by the Tourism and Civil Aviation Department, Sikkim has welcomed a staggering 2,90,401 tourists in the first quarter of the year, up till March 31, 2024. Among these, two 2,56,537 were domestic tourists, while 30,864 hailed from foreign shores.

Since June 12, all major roads leading to North Sikkim have experienced multiple heavy slides and formation breaches, resulting in the severing of complete connectivity to North Sikkim since then.

The situation became grave after the collapse of the newly constructed suspension bridge at Sanklang as the entire connectivity to North Sikkim and Dzongu region was through this bridge. In response to this natural disaster, despite severe weather conditions and heavy rainfall in the region, BRO swung into restoration efforts by mobilizing huge manpower and machinery to restore connectivity to North Sikkim at the earliest.

Altogether 64 tourists, mostly students have been rescued by road from Toong in North Sikkim’s Mangan district as the evacuation of stranded tourists began in the flood and landslide-affected Himalayan state on Monday.

More than 1,200 tourists, including 15 foreigners have been stranded in Mangan district since June 12 and rain-induced landslides cut off all road communication of the district with the rest of the state.

However, Mangan district magistrate Hem Kumar Chettri, who also led the evacuation process, said 50 tourists have been evacuated till the evening.

No tourists have been allowed to be moved from Chungthang and Lachung. Many tourists are accommodated in Chungthang Gurudwara, some in other houses and maximum of them have been sent back to Lachung.

He said that initial plans for air evacuation from Lachung were unable to materialise due to bad weather conditions. However, the evacuation of tourists began this morning in the Mangan district.

Chettri elaborated, stating, “Approximately 1800 tourists and drivers are stranded in Lachen and Chungthang. We’ve advised hotels not to force tourists to check out and are ensuring their accommodation and provisions.”

He highlighted the logistical challenges, citing landslides on the route to Gangtok, the Border Road Organisation, Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority, and other agencies that have built log bridges to facilitate evacuation.

Regarding the evacuation, Chettri said they have 6 helicopters on standby at Bagdogra for the next evacuation batch. Weather permitting, airlifting will begin as early as tomorrow.

Regarding recent incidents, Chettri reported the retrieval of 3 bodies from Paksep and 3 bodies from Ambithang due to landslides on June 10. He assured, “Relief materials are being dispatched, and efforts are ongoing to reach all affected areas despite severed roads.”

Concerning the restoration of the National Highway, he said that the construction delays are due to heavy rainfall affecting mountain streams which is making it difficult for the workers.

In terms of relief efforts, Chettri said ex-gratia is being distributed to those who lost homes in the landslide and those whose houses are damaged. “We will then be giving priority to those who lost cattle and grazing fields, aligning to the norms of natural calamity guidelines” he added.

“Despite inclement weather throughout the day, around 64 tourists have been rescued and moved to Mangan. The rescue operation has been halted due to inclement weather and remaining tourists will be evacuated tomorrow and the day after,” a senior official of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) said.

“The evacuation operation was supported by the Mangan district administration along with the NDRF team,” the official said.

BRO RESTORES CONNECTIVITY : “The BRO personnel restored vital connectivity between Chungthang and Mangan via the recently-constructed bridge at Toong over river Teesta. Swift and efficient response by the team of 758 BRTF under Project Swastik restored vital connectivity,” the BRO official said.

However, all major roads leading to North Sikkim like Dikchu-Sanklang-Toong, Mangan-Sanklang, Singtham-Rangrang, and Rangrang-Toong have been still blocked for traffic movement due to landslides. The rain-induced flash floods also triggered by heavy monsoon rains, swept through several regions of Sikkim, causing widespread destruction to homes, infrastructure, and livelihoods.

Meanwhile, Brigadier Manoj Gupta, chief engineer Project Swastik of BRO along with his team of officers has carried out a detailed report of flood-devastated areas of Sikkim.

“Plan for early restoration of road axis to Mangan and methodology of deploying more resources were assessed by having a look at the landslides and breached areas. Work on constructing Toe walls using Gabbion Basket is underway from the Dikchu end. Work to restore the road from Dikchu to Rangrang is under progress on war footing,” the official said.

“The main challenge is overcoming a 180-meter deep breach and damage to road formation caused by the infamous Namak Nullah ahead of Dikchu. To ensure faster connectivity to Mangan, the PWD has to open a route from Rangrang to Mangan as this stretch is not under the area of responsibility of BRO. BRO has assured all assistance in terms of manpower and machinery to PWD Dept in opening the road,” the official also said.

The BRO also deployed multiple heavy machinery and hundreds of labourers to clear the numerous slides on various roads in the Mangan district.

“BRO cleared multiple slides along Sanklang-Toong road and made it traffic-worthy for light vehicles. Similarly, the road stretch between Naga and Lanthakhola(on Mangan–Chungthang road) has been cleared and the road has been made traffic-worthy. However, due to massive formation breach at Lanthakhola and Rafangkhola traditional slide points have suffered massive formation breach,” the official further said.

“Heavy equipment has been deployed to restore vehicular connectivity across these slide points at the earliest. However, by constructing a log bridge, foot connectivity across these slide points has been achieved. Painstaking efforts are being made by BRO to rescue stranded tourists from North Sikkim at the earliest,” he said.

“Teams of BRO are working in the adverse weather conditions and under continuous rainfall to ensure that the lifeline of North Sikkim is restored to its previous state,” he added.

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