Over 2,000 Tourists Stranded And 6 Dead After Landslides and Flash Floods In Sikkim
Over 2,000 Tourists Stranded And 6 Dead After Landslides and Flash Floods In Sikkim
Approximately 12,000 domestic tourists and 10 foreign tourists have been awaiting rescue.
15 June 2024
By Khushi Maheshwari
According to officials on Friday, at least six people have died this week and another 2,000 visitors are stuck in Sikkim, an Indian state in the Himalayas, due to landslides and floods brought on by non stop rain. As per officials in Nepal’s Taplejung district, which borders Sikkim, four more people have died after a landslide caused by rains carried away the home they were resting in.
The Mangan district, which includes north Sikkim and is located roughly 100 km (60 miles) north of the state capital Gangtok, had multiple landslides as a result of heavy rainfall, according to the local government of the state in northeastern India.
It has been pouring rain for the past 36 hours. Multiple areas along the road leading to north Sikkim have sustained damage, cutting off access to the district, according to Mangan district magistrate Hem Kumar Chettri. Eleven of the tourists were foreign nationals, he added. “The stranded tourists are all safe but we have not been able to evacuate them because of the damage,” he said.
The situation deteriorated on Wednesday night when numerous roads in Kalimpong’s Teesta Bazar connecting Darjeeling and Kalimpong, as well as Geil Khola, were submerged by persistent, severe rains. Additionally, the roads that link Siliguri to Kalimpong and Darjeeling are regularly watched.
Situated between Bhutan, China and Nepal, this small Buddhist state of 650,000 people is a well-liked travel destination, but it also experiences natural calamities brought on by harsh weather patterns in the Himalayas. Floods caused by an eruption of a glacier lake in the Himalayas last year claimed the lives of at least 179 people in Sikkim.
According to Chettri, workers and equipment have been sent in to rebuild the road, but the damage was “extensive” and will require some time to fully heal. The rains have partially or completely destroyed about 50 dwellings, and the occupants have been relocated to a relief camp. According to weather officials, western Nepal is experiencing one of the hottest seasons while the country’s eastern regions have been battered by torrential rains.
