Landslips triggered by heavy rain claimed 27 lives, including those of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel, in Sikkim, even as the flood situation in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh deteriorated.
Official sources said in Gangtok on Sunday that at least 21 bodies, including those of the ITBP and BRO personnel, were found while eight persons were missing following flash floods and landslips in remote areas of North Sikkim.
Army and Indian Air Force personnel have launched rescue operations in full swing in the badly affected areas.
The dead include four from the ITBP, two of their family members, and 12 junior officers from the BRO. Other victims were casual labourers, they said. Most of the casualties were reported from Rangma range.
Landslips were caused by heavy rain since September 19, Deputy Commissioner of North district T.W. Khangsherpa said, adding there were about nine landslips blocking the main road between Chungthang and Mangan in the district.
In the small hours of Sunday, another landslip occurred about a kilometre from Mangan, the district headquarter town of North Sikkim, blocking NH 31-A, leaving the northern side of the Himalayan State cut off.
In Assam, the flood situation deteriorated with 15 districts reeling under its impact, as large parts of the Dibru-Saikhowa and Kaziranga National Parks and the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary were submerged. Five deaths have been reported, official sources said in Guwahati.
Troops of the Tezpur-headquartered Gajraj Corps swung into action in flood-hit Sonitpur district of central Assam and rescued around 1,500 civilians in the past four to five days. — PTI
Swollen Brahmaputra has affected an estimated 5 lakh people
Many rivers, tributaries flowing over danger mark in Arunachal
COMMents
SHARE