Over 2,000 tourists stranded in North Sikkim as heavy rain triggers landslides

The BRO has advised all tourists and locals to avoid the routes of recurrent landslides during heavy rainfall and has requested not to line up on roadblocks to prevent any injury to personnel and damage to vehicles due to sudden landslides and flash floods

More than 2,000 tourists were stranded in Lachung, Lachen and Chungthang of North Sikkim after landslides triggered by torrential rains led to road blockades and cut off popular destinations, officials said.

Sikkim government and the Border Roads Organization (BRO) have started the rescue work (Twitter Photo)

Monsoon arrived in Sikkim on June 12, and many parts of the eastern state have been witnessing heavy rainfall since.

“Several people got stranded in Lachen and Lachung. National Highway 10 was damaged at several places, between Mangan and Chungthang, by landslides,” Hem Kumar Chettri, district collector of Mangan district in Sikkim told media persons on Friday.

Heavy rains lashed North Sikkim on Thursday night, which resulted in the overflow of nearby rivers leading to the flash flood that engulfed the highway, officials said.

Lachen and Lanchung are two popular hill destinations where tourists going to high-altitude destinations such as Gurudongmar Lake and Yumthang Valley stay for the night.

Officials said that the Sikkim government and the Border Roads Organization (BRO) have started the rescue work. Though the road connectivity has been restored, the bridge over Supply Khola near Chungthang has been washed out thus making places like Lachan and Lachung cut off, they said.

“From Saturday morning, we have started evacuating the stranded 2,100 tourists, including foreigners. We are hopeful the evacuation process would be completed by Saturday evening. 358 vehicles have also remained stranded,” said Chettri.

Officials said that a makeshift bridge has been constructed over Supply Khola from there, stranded people are being brought back and will be dropped off at Gangtok.

Stranded tourists had stayed in their respective hotels at Lachen and Lachung keeping in view of road blockage on Friday night.

A press release issued by the Indian Army said: “300 tourists were already evacuated by noon, Saturday.”

Gopinath Raha, head of the meteorological department, Gangtok told HT: “It has been raining regularly in Sikkim. Lachung received 13 cm of rain, which is considered very heavy, till Friday morning. Gangtok and Chungthang each received heavy rainfall of 11 cm in the same period.”

The BRO has advised all tourists and locals to avoid the routes of recurrent landslides during heavy rainfall and has requested not to line up on roadblocks to prevent any injury to personnel and damage to vehicles due to sudden landslides and flash floods.

Meanwhile, Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, is likely to witness the scarcity of drinking water as the water source has been damaged at Ratheychu by landslides.