Gangtok, Oct 10: The tourists who were stranded  in Sikkim’s Lachen shared their experience after Indian Army helped them and brought them back to safer place.

Lachen is the tourist hotspot in North Sikkim, and every year tourists from other states of India come here to enjoy the places, but this time they were stranded here due to devastating flash floods in Sikkim, which triggered a lake glacial burst on the South Lhonak Lake on Tuesday.

“We have come from Mumbai. But due to the devastation, we were stranded at Lachen. But the Indian army helped us and provided us everything during our hours of need. Our children were stuck at Lachen. We were six people who came to Sikkim. We thank the Indian Army for the help,” said a tourist.

According to reports, 16 students and one professor were left stranded in Lachen following the October 3 glacial burst.

“The students from Sikkim Government College, Mangshila, Mangan District were on an exposure trip to Lashar Valley in higher reaches of Mangan District since September 30. Four students were finally evacuated on October 10. 16 other students and a professor still await evacuation,” said an official source.

Speaking to reporters, Rigden Bhutia, a student who is also on the exposure trip, said, “Earlier, I thought it was an earthquake, but someone came and said we have 15 minutes. We don’t know what exactly happened. We have come here for an exposure trip from our school. The first two days were good, but in the third, the devastation happened, and we were stuck at our place. We were provided food, and no such problem arose because one Bhanti Bhaiya helped us”.

Tenzing Lachenpa, a local resident, shared his constructed how the glacial burst on the South Lhonak lake has affected their lives.

“For seven days we were stranded here. We have to go to upper side. A pool has been constructing for the easy accessible of the local resident. Heavy rain in that day and due to the disaster cracks were created everywhere. Some buildings were damaged,” Lachenpa said.

Samdup Lepcha, MLA Luchen-Mangan said, “The situation is not so good in Luchen because the road connectivity was cut off due to the disaster. But there is nothing to worry about because the Sikkim government has evacuated many stranded tourists from Luchen. Today, 100 stranded tourists were airlifted by the Army Luchen-Mangan, safer place. The Indian army, ITBP, NDRF are all helping the stranded people”.

Meanwhile, the Indian Army’s Border Roads Organisation (BRO), with the help of ITBP, has launched a footbridge from the Chungthang side.

Special teams were deployed on Saturday to open the route to Chaten via Rabom. A foot link-up has thus been established, and assistance is being provided to nearly 200 civilians stranded in the area.

Signalers of the Trishakti Corps have been continuing their efforts to restore communication links to North Sikkim by working around the clock.

Efforts are also underway to restore communication until Lachung and Lachen, after which the telecommunication service providers can start working to restore mobile communication in North Sikkim.

Over 70 people are dead, and 100 remain traceless to date. But the search and rescue operations continue.

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