KOLKATA/NEW DELHI, Oct 6 (Portal) – At least 42 people were killed after a glacial lake burst its banks and triggered flash floods in India’s Himalayas this week, government officials said on Friday, as rescuers continued to search for nearly 150 missing people.
Lhonak Lake in the mountainous northeastern state of Sikkim overflowed on Wednesday after a cloudburst triggered heavy rains and an apparent avalanche, causing major flooding in the Teesta River.
It was one of the region’s worst disasters in more than 50 years and the latest in a series of extreme weather events that have caused widespread damage in South Asia’s Himalayas, which scientists blame on climate change.
Authorities in Sikkim said the disaster, which came ahead of a popular holiday and tourism season in the scenic state, impacted the lives of 22,000 people.
“We got calls from people that the river level might rise at 3 a.m. and we were running for our lives,” said Javed Ahmed Ansari, 44, a Teesta Valley resident who owns a river rafting business.
“We ran towards the hill in the jungle… We saw houses being washed away. Now I can only see the first floor of our house, which is filled with sand, everything is under water.”
Scientists and government agencies were working on an early warning system for glacial flooding at Lake Lhonak that would have given people more time to evacuate if it had been fully operational, officials involved in the project told Portal.
Sikkim chief secretary Vijay Bhushan Pathak, the most senior official, said rescuers had found 20 bodies in the state and 22 in the neighboring downstream state of West Bengal.
The 22 included six Indian military personnel who had been washed away from Sikkim. Images of the remaining 16 were being circulated in Sikkim to determine whether they belonged to the state or West Bengal, Pathak told Portal by telephone.
The number of missing people rose to 142, including 15 army personnel, as people stepped up searches as the weather improved on Friday, he said.
Military helicopters made four attempts to evacuate tourists stranded in the higher areas of the state but failed due to bad weather, Pathak said, adding that they would try again on Saturday.
Bandana Chettri, a senior official in the state tourism department, said all tourists, including more than 50 foreigners, were safe.
FIREARMS, EXPLOSIVES WASHED AWAY
Earlier on Friday, Tseten Bhutia, a state official, said rescue and relief teams were facing difficulties as areas in north Sikkim were completely cut off.
So far, about 2,400 people have been evacuated and 7,600 people are in relief camps, Bhutia said. Private and government facilities were closed in the area until October 15.
In the state, 15 bridges were washed away, hampering rescue operations. All bridges downstream of an NHPC (NHPC.NS) Teesta-V hydroelectric power plant were either flooded or washed away, the Indian government said.
Photos and videos on social media showed roads and paths covered in mud and rocks, stalled vehicles and small, muddy streams flowing along hillsides.
Military equipment, including firearms and explosives, were washed away in the Teesta River, a defense ministry spokesman said in a social media post.
In a neighboring district in West Bengal state, people picked up a mortar shell that later exploded, killing a child and injuring six people, local lawmaker Pradeep Kumar Barma told news agency ANI.
According to the meteorological department, Sikkim received 101 mm (four inches) of rain in the first five days of October, more than twice normal, triggering floods worse than those in October 1968, in which an estimated 1,000 people died.
Heavy rain is forecast in parts of the region on Friday, but the intensity of the showers is expected to ease, the India Meteorological Department said.
Sikkim, a small Buddhist state of about 650,000 people located in the mountains between Nepal, Bhutan and China, was cut off from Siliguri in West Bengal because the main road connecting it to the rest of the country collapsed.
Additional reporting by Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar; Writing by Shivam Patel and YP Rajesh; Editing by Michael Perry and Andrew Heavens
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