Avik Chakraborty

Gangtok, Oct 6: “We were sleeping, suddenly at around 12.30 a.m. a loud sound was heard and we ran away from our house with our documents. We could not save our utensils; everything was washed away in the water. Somehow, we managed to save our lives,” recalls Hare Krishna Barman, teenage boy, as he and his brother had to rush out of their residence in the middle of the night on October 4 with just the clothes they were wearing.

Currently, the brothers, who are migrant labourers from North Bengal’s Cooch Behar, are staying in a relief camp uphill 4-5 kms from their residence, which got washed away in the devastating flash floods in Sikkim in the wee hours of Wednesday morning due to the South Lhonak glacial lake burst.

“We have not seen such disaster in our lives. We have come here for work but now everything is lost. We have contacted our relatives in Cooch Behar and they told us to wait for the roads to open. If the roads are clear, we will move to Cooch Behar,” Barman said.

The bursting of the South Lhonak glacial lake swelled up the mighty Teesta River that washed away everything in its path on Wednesday morning as people ran for their lives, leaving everything behind. Atleast 40 deaths have been confirmed and over 100 missing. The devastation to land and property is so immense that it has yet to be estimated.

A resident of Richu in Sikkim, Bonumit Lepcha, said half of her house has been washed away. She feels fortunate to have survived the ordeal as the incident was too sudden to react. “My house was damaged due to the disaster. Half portion of my building was submerged and I somehow managed to save my life. When the incident occurred, I was alone; my husband went for job. I heard a loud sound like bomb blast and within few minutes my house was damaged.”

But Bonumit and her family members have not abandoned their house, and are living few meters away from their damaged property out in the wilderness.

“My brother’s house was also damaged in the disaster. Now, we are living in jungle area. I somehow managed and saved some of my belongings. A government relief camp has been set up few kms away from our house. We are getting food and water from the relief camp. We have lost everything in the disaster,” Bonumit said.

Grieving at her loss that took years to build and lot of sacrifices, she rued, “The flash floods has brought miseries in our lives. We have constructed our house with our hard-earned money but now everything is gone. We didn’t even get time to save our utensils and property.”

Meanwhile, Nima Dorjee, a Buddhist monk, has been offering prayers to the almighty to save the people from the disaster.

“The people are facing problems due to the disaster and they came to me to save them from the natural disaster. We have organised a puja as per Buddhist tradition, offering prayers to God to save the people and bless them with peace and good health,” said Dorjee.

According official sources, at least 22 bodies have been found in the Teesta River in Jalpaiguri district of North Bengal. On the other hand, the Indian Army is providing assistance including food, medical aid and extending communication facility to civilians and tourists stranded in North Sikkim.

The troops of Trishakti Corps of the Indian Army have been able to take account of 1471 tourists present in the areas of Lachen, Chatten, Lachung and Chungthang in Sikkim.

Also Read: All arrangements made to bring back Meghalaya’s citizens, students from Sikkim: Paul

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